United Legal Educators UAW
ABOUT US
We are a group of UCLSF student workers who want to unionize in order to have a greater say over our working conditions and improve our ability to perform high quality legal research, education, and organization. Our work is essential to keep the school running.
By forming a union, UCLSF student workers are creating a stronger voice in the institution. A union will give us more rights and the power to make improvements. We will have the opportunity to join thousands of other unionized workers in California who have negotiated legally binding contracts that increase equity and transparency in the terms and conditions of our employment.
TESTIMONIALS

Mikaela Gareeb
2L, LRW TA
“As a requirement to be on Moot Court, I’m an LRW TA. While I love helping the 1Ls build their skills, I think that all student workers should be fairly paid for the labor that they put in. Additionally, the school has taken several actions that are not in the best interest of student workers because they are not obligated to consider our perspectives in decision-making. Accordingly, forming a union would give student workers a voice on this campus and force administrators to include us in the conversation.”

Tom Flynn
3L TA
“I’ve worked in academic support for 2 years. I’ve seen student workers act as a backstop for people struggling with acclimating to law school while dealing the the stresses of living in the Bay Area without acknowledgement or compensation. Working with faculty at UC Law SF should not only be accessible for students who can get by without being fairly paid for their labor.”

Charlotte Halifax
3L TA
“I’m organizing for our union because we provide the labor to run all of our school’s academic programming and we deserve to be treated and compensated fairly. It’s important that we hold the school accountable and install protections to make sure the other students coming into the institutions get fair treatment. As a 3L, I want to leave UC Law SF better than when I entered it.”

Stephen Cosenza Jr.
LRW TA, Sack Fellow
“I am a LRW TA and Sack Fellow for Crim Law and Con Law. Law school is challenging environment and I greatly appreciated the support I received from student workers during my 1L year, which is what motivated me to take on these roles. However, the school does not provide adequate compensation for these essential and demanding roles. Similarly, students deserve to have a unified voice in our working conditions and equity across all student job classifications. By forming a student worker union, we will be able to collectively advocate for better conditions and create a more viable and positive working environment for future law students.”

Hunter Komuro
2L, Admissions Fellow
“I really like my job giving tours for the Admissions Office, but it’s getting increasingly difficult to advertise the school when I see how unfairly my friends in other job classifications on campus are being treated. It makes no sense to me that I get paid hourly while my friends who work so hard helping teach students get paid a stipend that does not meet minimum wage. Because student employees typically work on campus for such a short amount of time, it is very difficult to have a meaningful voice and be heard by the administration. With a union, we can build a strong voice to advocate not only for ourselves as workers, but for every student who follows our footsteps in the future.”

Ohona Chowdhury
3L - Student Fellow at Admissions
“Student workers have a unique experience at UC Law SF because we tend to be the faces of different departments within the school. I think it’s important for us to be able to advocate for ourselves and each other given our unique positioning. The best way to do this is for student workers to have a democratic process and a stronger collective voice to be able to negotiate for improvements.”

Zoe Papadopoulos
2L & Research Assistant
“As someone who’s worked in multiple positions at this school and wants to continue to work at the school; I decided to join the unionization campaign because I think the amount of work students do to make this campus run is grossly under-appreciated and taken advantage of. The lack of transparency from the school administration and inequality in how compensation is decided for each role is unacceptable and depends on law students being too busy to care or notice. Faculty may sympathize with the exploitation of student workers but have little say in changing the structure. Overall, student workers make this campus run, as a TA they help ensure students at the school don’t fall behind, they make sure our library is running smoothly, they get communications out to students, and they help faculty juggle their workloads. This is all incredibly important work that deserves to be fairly compensated and fairly recognized. I believe union will help get us to that goal quicker.”

Grant Reed-Hoos
3L Sack Fellow for Constitutional Law 1
“My name is Grant Reed-Hoos I was a Sack Fellow for Constitutional Law 1. I love the Sack program and it was a pleasure working with my classmates but the pay is insulting low and discourages students from agreeing to do it. We should join the rest of the UC schools and unionize our student workers so that we can get fair pay for our work and support our student workers who have pay the exorbitant costs of living in this city. Join the union! We’re stronger together!”

Diego Lucich
2L and Admissions Fellow
“I’m a 2L and Admissions Fellow. I believe student workers should have a greater say in the quantity and forms of compensation. By forming a union, students can exercise collective bargaining power and negotiate for improvements in their pay.”

Will Martel
3L, Research Assistant
“I currently work as a Research Assistant, but I have also worked as a Moot Court Board member, Moot Court student coach/brief editor, Sack Fellow, and LRW TA. My work has been an engaging and important part of my legal development, and I want to ensure that all students have access to fair, empowering, and well-compensated work opportunities.
Organizing our student workforce is one step toward improving equitable access to legal education. As a union, we can negotiate for improved wages, healthcare benefits, and other working conditions to ensure those who need to work to support themselves through law school have the same opportunities as those who can afford to work for less compensation.”

David Imhoff
2L, LRW TA
“TAs play a vital role in ensuring the academic success and overall well-being of the students they teach and mentor. As a 1L, it was so helpful for me to have supportive peers who had already been through what I was going through to help me navigate the journey. Resume-building and the desire to give back are insufficient incentives for sustaining this valuable work in the law school. Rather, like all forms of labor, this work should be justly compensated. I support forming a union as a recognition of the power we hold as student workers, and a commitment to leverage that power to improve conditions for all workers. Solidarity forever!”

Adrian Jauregui
2L in Solidarity with my Student Worker Classmates
“I know how hard student workers work with what little free time they have, and how little they get paid. My classmates create the assets upon which the university trades; our moot court program is one of our main recruiting and advertising institutions, increasing our nationwide esteem, yet LRW TAs, overworked and underpaid, are the ones who really teach and perform those marketable skills. With a union, these and plenty more concerns (lack of transparency, wage theft, housing price gouging, poor staffing) can be more properly addressed with the input of a democratically organized workforce that administration can’t exploit as easily.”

Isabel (Isa) Velez
2024 - RA
“Through my time at UC Law SF, I have been a Sack Fellow twice and a Research Assistant. While the content of my work in those positions has been fulfilling, important, and significant in my growth as a student and future attorney, it frustrates me that I was not fairly compensated for the time I dedicated to those positions. It is only right that student workers who meaningfully contribute to how UC Law SF operates and educates students should be compensated fairly and have a voice in the terms of their employment. I hope for future generations of students to be adequately acknowledged and appreciated by the institution for their invaluable work and time, and forming a union is a step towards that.”
Frequently Asked Questions
Why a union? Why now?
Forming a union with collective bargaining rights is the only way to have the power to negotiate with the UCLSF administration as equals and reach a legally binding contract.
This effort began when UCLSF student workers started talking together about how to improve our working conditions and improve transparency and equity. Currently, the UCLSF administration has unilateral control over our pay, benefits, and workplace rights. With a union, we gain the right to collectively bargain with UCLSF and a greater voice in our workplace.
How does collective bargaining work?
Collective bargaining is a process, recognized and protected by state law, that equalizes the power relationship between employees and their employer. After the union is recognized or certified as the exclusive bargaining representative, we begin that process of collective bargaining to reach a legally binding contract with the UCLSF administration.
Without collective bargaining, UCLSF administration has unilateral power to change our working conditions. For example, the UCLSF administration currently decides unilaterally whether to provide UCLSF student workers with annual raises or not, how much we receive in tuition remission, etc.
Collective bargaining is a democratic process with many steps. First, we vote to elect a bargaining team of our colleagues. Then, through our participation in town halls, surveys, and discussions, the bargaining team drafts a set of initial bargaining demands. We then choose whether to adopt those demands through a vote of all UCLSF student workers. The bargaining team would then negotiate with UCLSF administration and come to a tentative agreement with UCLSF. Before that agreement can go into effect, all UCLSF student workers have a chance to review and vote on whether or not to ratify it. If we vote to ratify the tentative agreement, then it becomes a legally enforceable contract.
How might the administration react to our unionization effort? Could I be retaliated against for participating?
Under California State law, it is illegal for a public employer to retaliate against an employee for organizing a labor union at their workplace. By acting together as a majority, we aim to create a work environment where everyone can make positive change without fear of retaliation.
Will I have to pay dues?
As part of the UAW, we would not pay dues until we have gone through the bargaining process and voted democratically to approve our first contract. Dues are critical for providing us with independent resources that are not controlled by UCLSF: we use them to ensure we have appropriate legal, bargaining, ongoing organizing and staff support to represent the student workers at UCLSF. UAW membership dues are currently 1.44% of gross monthly income.
Why are UCLSF student workers organizing with the United Auto Workers union?
While UAW began as an auto worker union, there are now over 100,000 higher ed workers in UAW, making UAW one of the largest unions of higher ed workers in the country. Nearly half of those workers are at the UC and include a wide variety of job titles. About 1/3rd of all UAW workers are higher ed workers.
UAW has historically been one of the largest and most diverse unions in North America. By joining this movement, UCLSF student workers will also gain political power to impact policy and funding decisions on the local, state, and federal levels.
How do we form a union?
First and foremost, we talk with our fellow UCLSF student workers to learn about our shared interests and build majority support for forming a union. In UAW, there are a series of steps taken to forming a union, including:
- UCLSF student workers form a diverse organizing committee to gather information and make a plan to form a union.
- A majority of all UCLSF student workers (50% + 1) sign authorization cards indicating they would like to form United Legal Educators-UAW.
- UCLSF student workers deliver their authorization cards to the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) which oversees California public employee unionization efforts. PERB requests a list of student workers from UCLSF to verify that all cards are valid and represent a majority.
- If PERB finds that a majority of UCLSF student workers have signed cards, then UCLSF may voluntarily recognize United Legal Educators-UAW and/or PERB may certify United Legal Educators-UAW as the exclusive representative of UCLSF student workers. After being recognized or certified, UCLSF student workers can begin bargaining with the UCLSF administration!
- UCLSF student workers elect a bargaining committee of our peers.
- UCLSF student workers fill out comprehensive bargaining surveys, hold discussions, gather feedback to draft their initial bargaining priorities, and request information from UCLSF administration.
- Initial bargaining demands are sent to all UCLSF student workers for review, and we vote on whether or not to approve them.
- The bargaining committee negotiates as equals with UCLSF administration and provides regular updates to all UCLSF student workers.
- Once a tentative agreement is reached at the bargaining table, all UCLSF student workers vote on whether or not to ratify the agreement.
What have other UC workers won through unionization and collective bargaining?
- Tuition and fee remission
- Transparent job expectations and protections from overwork
- 24 days of paid vacation
- Childcare subsidies
- 8 weeks 100% paid parental leave
- Improved dependent healthcare
- Many other improvements
What specific improvements will a union make?
As UCLSF student workers, we will democratically decide what to prioritize in contract negotiations. We are beginning this process already with the preliminary bargaining survey included with union authorization cards, and will continue soliciting feedback through comprehensive surveys made available to all UCLSF student workers, town hall meetings, and more. Before even going to the bargaining table, all student workers will be able to participate in democratically electing a bargaining team and voting on initial bargaining demands.
At the bargaining table, other unionized student employees have won improvements like higher wages, protections from harassment, discrimination, and abusive conduct, protections from unfair termination, more transparent workplace policies, and more. Critically, these improvements are part of a legally binding contract, which makes them enforceable.
You can read more about what other academic employees have won through unionizing here.
How could a union improve protections against discrimination and harassment?
Union contracts can include language that explicitly prohibits harassment and discrimination based on common workplace abuses, including discrimination based on racial, gender, sexuality and disability. Some contracts, such as the new UC Student Researcher Contract and UC Postdoc Contract, include explicit protections against bullying and abusive behavior.
Furthermore, a union contract can also include language that compels the administration to address problems in a timely manner and provide greater accountability. Unions can also take collective action to support one another and ensure complaints are satisfactorily addressed.
More creative ideas are also possible in collective bargaining. For exampling, at University of Washington, academic workers won peer-led sexual-violence sexual-harassment training, which studies have shown is much more effective at reducing rates of sexual harassment.
Will we have to go on strike?
In the UAW, workers decide democratically if and when to call a strike. In order to authorize a strike, 2/3rds of UCLSF student workers must vote in favor. Striking can be a powerful way to win major improvements, but it is not the only way to reach a fair contract. For example, UC Postdocs and UC Academic Researchers both negotiated strong first contracts without striking, but were prepared to strike if necessary.
Will forming a union cause UCLSF to reduce benefits or lower pay?
Once a union is formed, generally UCLSF cannot unilaterally alter any terms and conditions of employment—including pay and benefits. Instead, changes to terms and conditions of employment are subject to collective bargaining, through which UCLSF student workers have the power to negotiate with UCLSF administrators as equals and democratically approve a binding, enforceable contract.
I agree with the goals of unionization, but are there other ways for us to accomplish them?
While there are many ways for the UCLSF student workers to engage with the University, forming a union means that UCLSF will be required to negotiate a contract with us as equals. Unionizing also protects our right to take collective action free from retaliation, and, once we have a contract in place, will give us a mechanism to enforce the rights and benefits we bargain for in our contract. Many UC student workers have found that other efforts to make UC a more equitable workplace have been under-resourced or not taken seriously by UC. By unionizing, we would have the power to more effectively implement improvements.
Are there benefits to forming a union other than improving pay and benefits?
Forming a union can provide political and social benefits. The power of collective action can result in better public policy—an organized group can influence elections and legislation that benefit student workers. Additionally, it’s common for workers use their union for socializing, community building, and professional development. By joining this movement, we can have more say in how and what we do to improve California and its system of higher education.
For example, unionized UC student workers have leveraged their political voice to:
- Sponsor AB2350 to increase protections against pregnancy discrimination and has also worked to increase legal protections against sexual harassment.
- Help pass the CA DREAM act which gave financial aid to undocumented students to attend public universities and relieves them of non resident tuition.
In our union, we would all democratically decide how to use our political leverage.
I’m on my way out and won’t be working again next term. Is it appropriate for me to vote?
All current student workers are considered part of the unit, and in order to form a union, a majority of everyone must sign a card. So not signing means not being counted toward that majority. When the cards are counted, everyone who does not sign may be seen by the administration as opposing unionization. Future generations of student workers are not counted in this current process, so it’s us current student workers who have the opportunity to gain more rights and raise the standards for those who come after us.