UC graduate student researchers try to unionize

About 17,000 graduate student researchers across the University of California are seeking to become unionized, according to CalMatters.

Student Researchers United, a committee representing those researchers, filed a petition with the California Public Employment Relations Board for union certification.

Organizers for the committee told CalMatters that they want better benefits and pay, more protections for international students and protections against harassment and discrimination.

“I’m really excited for us to be able to make our working conditions better, make our work balance better, and improve things like equity as graduate students and create a more democratic workplace,” Katie Augspurger, one of the  organizers and a biochemistry researcher at UC San Francisco said.

Erika Cervantes, a spokesperson for UC, told CalMatters that UC “neither discourages nor encourages unionization.”