Great news! The Public Employees Relations Board (PERB) has finished reviewing our authorization cards, and they determined that we do in fact represent a majority of doctors working for the UC student health centers. By reaching majority, your group has crossed another important milestone in the journey towards unionization. I couldn’t be happier for you all.
As a result of this news, today we were able to send a letter to the University of California demanding that they begin bargaining with UAPD over the salary, benefits, and working conditions of all UC student health center doctors. We will let you know as soon as we receive a response. UC doctors serving on the UAPD bargaining team will be selected shortly.
Right now we all must begin work on the content of that first contract. To that end, we ask that you complete a bargaining survey. The survey will tell the UAPD bargaining team the issues that you want to address in these negotiations. Please make good use of the comment boxes to expand on your ideas.
I also hope that one or more doctors from every campus will step forward to serve on the Contract Action Team (CAT). Members of the CAT will serve as liaisons between the UAPD bargaining team and doctors on each campus. In addition to relaying information, they will help organize their colleagues in support of bargaining. CAT members will also come up with ideas for contract language, taking into account their knowledge of local issues. We envision holding regular conference calls to communicate with CAT members across the state. There is a place where you can volunteer to join the Contract Action Team in the bargaining survey.