UAW 4811 adds 12,000 new members
United Auto Workers (UAW) 4811 now represents 60,000 academic student employees, graduate student researchers and teaching assistants across the University of California after adding 12,000 new union members.
The new members come from the groups Student Services & Advising Professionals (SSAP) and Research and Public Service Professionals (RPSP), which have recently become certified bargaining units. This addition brings the total number of UC-wide bargaining units to 17, five of which are represented by UAW.
According to The Daily Californian, SSAP and RPSP have been working to become a union since 2023 and received contracts earlier this year. Both groups then requested to join UAW 4811 in April and officially joined in May.
The contracts include wage raises, legal consultation for international workers, protections on health insurance premium increases and more. The contract is set to expire in four years.
UC Berkeley Law adopts policy restricting student AI usage
Starting this summer, UC Berkeley Law School will largely prohibit students from using artificial intelligence (AI) except for limited research purposes or otherwise stated by professors.
Berkeley Law students will not be allowed to use AI to draft papers, brainstorm ideas, organize arguments, correct grammar or translate their writing. The policy also forbids students from uploading any class materials into generative AI software.
The policy acknowledges that many future lawyers may need to use AI “fluently,” but that students need to learn the cognitive skills necessary not only to practice law but to properly utilize AI software.
“The current state of the technology requires that AI use be coupled with the cognitive skills necessary to strategically deploy the technology, to critically assess its work product, and to uphold ethical obligations to clients and to the legal system,” the policy reads. “In short, thinking remains the sine qua non of good lawyering (and of a quality legal education). This policy seeks to ensure that our courses focus on requisite cognitive skills by default.”
AFSCME ratifies new contract after years of contract negotiations
After years of contract negotiations with the UC and several strikes, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299 voted to ratify a new three-year contract.
AFSCME 3299, which represents over 40,000 UC workers, was set to strike on May 14 after filing two Unfair Labor Practices against the UC. The night before, the group reached a tentative contract agreement, securing annual wage increases and an increased minimum wage. The contract also caps healthcare rates for Kaiser Permanente and Blue & Gold.
Union members voted from May 19-21 in favor of the contract which is set to expire on Nov. 30, 2029.
