“We are all very excited,” said Rafael Jaime, president of UAW 2865 on behalf of the student workforce. “We know this is a historic contract and we are really happy that it has been approved. We will continue to build strength.”

Salary increases will be 55% through a combination of implementing a first-of-its-kind experience-based salary structure, standardizing salaries across campus, increasing minimum starting salaries, and providing an additional bump for workers in the most costly sectors. to 80%.

The agreement will raise the minimum starting salary for postgraduate researchers to nearly $35,000 and the minimum wage for teaching assistants to $34,000 by October 2024.

“I think this fight has always been about making the University of California more accessible to workers with diverse backgrounds. I think we made it an open opportunity,” Jaime said.

The agreement will also enhance benefits for employees with children, add new protections against bullying and discrimination, and provide new paid leave, according to a UAW news release.

University student employees voted 11,386 to 7,097, while graduate researchers voted 10,057 to 4,640, according to the union.

The decisive result followed an infighting between representatives of individual universities, and UAW chairmen of schools such as UC Merced, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Santa Cruz launched a campaign to persuade union members to vote against the deal. It was started.

UAW 2865’s negotiating team, representing 19,000 employees, including teaching assistants and tutors, voted 11 to 8 in favor of the proposal. His SRU-UAW representatives, made up of 17,000 graduate student researchers, voted 13 to 7 in favor.

Opponents of the deal frowned on a two-year ramp-up period, arguing that wage increases would still not be enough to cover the cost of living in the most expensive cities. UAW negotiators suggested he double his salary at the start of the strike, but later downgraded the offer.

About 12,000 postdoctoral scholars and academic researchers returned to work earlier this month after ratifying contract agreements on December 9. The deal raises the minimum wage to $70,000, the highest in the nation.