UC Lecturers Win Raises, Other Concessions in Deal That Averts Planned 2-Day Strike

The University of California’s 6,500 lecturers called off their planned strike Wednesday after winning long-sought concessions from UC management — including salary increases of about 30% over five years for its members, and job stability promises.

The deal, brokered around 4 a.m., followed two days of marathon bargaining sessions and capped off a labor impasse that began nearly three years ago.

“What changed is that we were really going to go on strike,” said Mia McIver, president of the University Council-American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT), the union representing the lecturers. “They understood how angry our members were.”

The work stoppage would have canceled as much as a third of undergraduate instruction at the nation’s premier public university system.

UC officials released a statement Wednesday morning, describing the tentative deal as a positive development that will particularly benefit students.

“We believe this contract addresses key issues, and honors the vital role you and your colleagues play in supporting UC’s educational mission and delivering high quality instruction,” Letitia Silas, UC’s executive director of labor relations, said in the statement .

Union officials called for the strike over the weekend to mount pressure on UC’s negotiators. Numerous state lawmakers have been urging UC officials to settle the labor dispute, blaming the university for the impasse. Aiding the union was a commitment from more than 800 senior faculty to cancel classes in solidarity with the striking lecturers.

“I expected today to come here and speak with anger and with disappointment in the way that bargaining had taken so long for us to get a good contract, but I was pleased to show up and have a success under our belt in such a historic contract for contingent faculty here at UC Berkeley,” Annie Danis, a UC Berkeley Anthropology Department lecturer, said at a Wednesday victory rally on campus. “I’ve been a lecturer for a year only, so I’m new to this profession, but I understand having been a graduate student here how overall the University of California has a long way to go in terms of supporting its workers. And this contract really makes me feel like I can make a living teaching the best students in the world.”

On Wednesday morning, the union and UC management signed a summary document outlining the details of the new contract. Union members will then vote within the next two weeks on whether to approve it. If ratified, the contract will run through March 2026.

Lecturers typically have doctorate degrees but lack the job stability and pay that tenured and tenure-track faculty receive. A CalMatters investigation found that a quarter of lecturers leave their jobs every year, due in large part to their tenuous employment conditions.

Josh Brahinsky, UC-AFT’s vice president for organizing, says the agreement was crucial for lecturers and will have a lasting impact, especially around job security.

“We just came to an agreement that changes the fundamental nature of what it’s like to be a lecturer in the UC system,” said Brahinsky. “Up until now, people in their first six years had no job security. Most of us are part time and our jobs are supremely insecure. Around 75% of us have no job security at all. And that means we tend to work at three to five other institutions so we can have something that’ll stick around for the next little while.”

Lecturers’ short-term contracts often last just a few months and their pay averages around $32,000 a year because of limited work opportunities. There is also no official system of performance reviews to determine when and how a lecturer can be rehired.

The deal addresses many of those concerns and includes:

• Annual pay raises of 7%, 3%, 3%, 3%, and 4% for all lecturers plus a higher bump for the lowest-paid lecturers and other increases based on merit;
• Employment contracts of one, two and then three years;
• Extensive performance reviews at the end of the two- and three-year contracts and a shorter written review following a one-year appointment;
• Rehiring rights if work is available for lecturers who passed their reviews;
• More compensation for lecturers who teach classes with more than 200 students or that have heavy writing components.

Other details of the deal are nonbinding, such as language saying academic departments may assign lecturers additional part-time work if it becomes available.

“But the big fight was to create viable, teaching-focused career pathways for people who want them, and I really think we’ve accomplished that,” McIver said.

The threat of the strike was technically over accusations of UC’s unfair labor practices rather than the larger contract terms. That distinction is important: By law the union couldn’t strike over the contract because they were in state-led mediation with UC. Adding to the confusion, UC and lecturers have also been negotiating behind closed doors through a state mediator.

The lecturer union and UC settled a key unfair labor practice gripe. Lecturers will now get four weeks of paid family leave at 100% of pay; previously UC was offering paid leave at 70% and only for lecturers who worked more than 1,250 hours in a year, which excluded most of the workforce because so many work part time. The union was asking for eight weeks of paid leave.

Lecturers didn’t win everything they wanted. UC still won’t pay into a lecturer’s Social Security if the lecturer works less than 50% of what’s considered full-time. Lecturers in that situation also don’t receive UC retirement contributions. The lecturers didn’t get a promise of a neutral arbitration committee to settle workload disputes nor changes to grievance procedures.

“I think this is just a completely extraordinary moment in time,” McIver said. “I feel like we’ve accomplished something real.”

KQED’s Alex Emslie and Rebecca Smith contributed reporting to this post.