The largest strike in higher education ended just days before the new year, bringing as many as 48,000 academic student employees back to work from the picket line. For six weeks, UAW Local 2865—which represents teaching assistants, tutors, graders, and readers across the University of California system—had coordinated the strike with a bargaining unit composed of student researchers. Consequently, academic student employees represented by UAW Local 2865 may see wage increases of up to 66% over the course of the union’s tentative agreement with the UC system. Additionally, for the first time in their history, student researchers will have a collective bargaining agreement in the UC system.

The largest strike in higher education ended just days before the new year, bringing as many as 48,000 academic student employees back to work from the picket line. For six weeks, UAW Local 2865—which represents teaching assistants, tutors, graders, and readers across the University of California system—had coordinated the strike with a bargaining unit composed of student researchers. Consequently, academic student employees represented by UAW Local 2865 may see wage increases of up to 66% over the course of the union’s tentative agreement with the UC system. Additionally, for the first time in their history, student researchers will have a collective bargaining agreement in the UC system.

Under existing California law, it is unlawful for government employers to “deter or discourage” employees from becoming or remaining members of a union. The law ensures that public sector employees can make their own decisions about whether to belong to the union, free from pressure or coercion from their employer.

A union is its members. An employee organization must be able to access and empower workers, who in turn come together to improve the conditions in their workplace. Senate Bill 191 holds potential as a powerful organizing tool by ensuring a union’s right to access newly employed public sector workers in person at the worksite during working hours.

With the passage of Senate Bill 1334, California’s public sector health care workers are now guaranteed meal and rest breaks, just like private sector employees. This is a tremendous victory for these front-line healthcare heroes, who have spent the past three years not only battling the COVID-19 pandemic, but also mental and physical exhaustion tied to severe understaffing.

Retired teachers across the State of California receive pension payments from the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (“CalSTRS”). But when they receive mistaken overpayments from CalSTRS—sometimes over a period of years—do they have to pay those overpayments back to CalSTRS?

On September 2, 2022, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 957, which brings Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District (“Santa Cruz METRO”) under the Public Employment Relations Board’s (“PERB”) unfair practice jurisdiction.

On August 22, 2022, Governor Newsom approved Senate Bill 1100 which amended the Ralph M. Brown Act (“Brown Act”). The Brown Act requires all meetings of a local agency’s legislative body to be open and public, with a few specified exceptions.

The Prohibition on Public Employer Deterring or Discouraging Union Membership (“PEDD,” Gov. Code §§ 3550-3553) provides employees with statutory protections against public employers interfering with protected union activity.

“When we fight, we win! When we fight, students win!” was the mantra of the employees of the Sacramento City Unified School District (“District”) on strike beginning March 23, 2022 for eight workdays, and twelve calendar days.

The California Public Employees Relations Board (“PERB”) recently decided that injunctive relief was proper to stop a school district both from interfering in an organizing campaign by an employee organization and giving preferential treatment to a rival employee organization in Clovis Unified School District.

On October 4, 2021, the Third District Court of Appeal affirmed a Public Employment Relations Board (“PERB”) decision that a state employee’s right to have a union representative present during an investigatory interview extends to having a representative in attendance during a strip search conducted for law enforcement purposes, even though there was no interrogation or questioning, pursuant to the Ralph C. Dills Act.

In early June 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court denied review in Thompson v. Marietta Education Association, 972 F.3d 809 (6th Cir. 2020). The case had the potential to further restrict what is known as exclusive bargaining representation.

The Public Employee Relations Board (“PERB”) recently ruled that a public sector employer must grant a Union’s request to conduct health and safety inspections at a worksite in SEIU Local 1021 and County of San Joaquin

On May 6, 2021, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) officially withdrew an independent contractor rule promulgated in the waning days of the Trump Administration that would have favored app-based gig economy companies like Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash.

On March 2, 2021, the California Public Employment Relations Board (“PERB”) issued a decision in County of Santa Clara (2021) PERB Order No. Ad-485-M. This Santa Clara decision clarified existing precedent regarding when pre-arbitration deferral is appropriate in the public sector.

Good news for Unions representing public employees! On January 25, 2021, the Supreme Court declined to hear a second wave of Janus-related cases that attempted to make Unions pay back years of lawfully collected fees.