Mass participation is the source of our power, and what we win in bargaining is a reflection of that power. To win big in 2025, Union MADE is committed to building mass participation at every level of our workplace so that every worker has greater control over their working and living conditions.

Our Priorities:

• Protecting our 2022 gains from inflation and cost-of-living increases

• Pay equity across campuses and job titles

• Job and pay security through longer appointments

• Rights and dignity for International scholars

• Support for parents and caregivers

Our Plan to Win: Power and Unity through Mass Participation

• Participatory and democratic priority-setting, through bargaining survey and first-ever bargaining convention, and open bargaining

• Building confidence through collective action, up to and including a supermajority-participation strike if justified and necessary

• Coordinating with other UC unions bargaining this year (UPTE, CNA, AFT, AFSCME)

We are stronger together. Inspired by the power of our massive strike in 2022, we came together last fall to form UAW 4811, the largest local union at UC and in the UAW. But our work does not end here. To build industrial power capable of taking on UC, we must continue to organize across all campuses and job titles, and we must continue to organize the unorganized.

• Growing membership to majority in all units

• Expanding our Postdoc and Academic Researcher organizing committees to build membership, prepare for the 2027 Postdoc and AR contract campaign, and support student workers in 2025

• Bringing UC undergrad workers into the UAW family, including 500 dining hall workers at UC Santa Barbara, 50 parking and transit workers at UC Berkeley, and over 40,000 more that are still unorganized

• Building union density at UC by supporting LBL Researchers and other non-unionized workers in joining UAW

Members run this union. Worker leadership and union democracy are core values, and members of the Union MADE slate are committed to building and upholding democracy, mass participation, and transparency in our union. This means:

• Orienting every new worker to their union rights and welcoming them into UAW 4811

• Building membership so that every worker at UC has a voice in their union

• Updating our department OC and steward system to build capacity and improve department-level democracy

• Equipping workers to enforce their rights and build power, through regular, open organizing and contract-enforcement trainings

• Reforming our membership meetings to improve transparency and democracy and build community

As a highly-organized union of 48,000 workers, the California progressive labor movement and the whole UC community look to us as leaders in the political fight for racial, social, and economic justice. To win real governing power for California workers, we committed to:

• Fighting the right-wing attack on higher education and the labor movement

• Participating strategically in the 2024 general elections, committing resources and people-power to elect pro-worker candidates — but only if they support our values

• Working with our political allies to pass progressive policies — like the right of public workers to honor a picket line, the right of undocumented students at UC to good union jobs, and the right of tenants to form unions

Finally, we led the charge this Winter to organize a successful membership vote affirming our commitment to a permanent ceasefire and lasting peace in a Free Palestine. In order to achieve that, we must wield our political power to move current elected officials and, when necessary, elect new officials who are on the side of justice. We must also continue to engage in escalatory direct actions to achieve these goals by fighting UC’s ties to the genocide.

As the largest local in the UAW, we are part of the broader movement to improve working conditions for all working-class people, union and non-union. We pledge to continue UAW 4811’s role a leader in efforts to expand the labor movement in higher ed and across other industries by:

• Fighting alongside our UAW sibling in auto for a just transition away from fossil fuels that ensure new green jobs are high-paying, union jobs.

• Supporting unionization drives at every step of the EV supply chain, as we have done at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

• Organizing unions in the many strategic industries in which UC graduates go on to work, including other higher ed institutions, tech, and medicine.

• Building on the reform efforts that achieved the historic One Member, One Vote and the election of President Shawn Fain.