IT employees across UC vote to join UPTE-CWA 9119 union

More than 2,000 information technology and technical employees across the UC unionized Thursday.

The employees voted to unionize with University Professional and Technical Employees-Communications Workers of America 9119 – which now represents about 8,400 workers in its technology bargaining unit – forming the largest union of its kind in the United States, a union spokesperson said in an emailed statement. UPTE-CWA 9119 represents about 26,000 healthcare, technical and research employees across California’s public higher education institutions.

The vote comes amid workers’ concerns about job stability and the role of artificial intelligence at the University, the union spokesperson added.

“We know when you try to make quick, dirty decisions to cut labor through AI, you’re actually creating a more vulnerable system,” said Dan Russell, UPTE-CWA 9119’s president, in an emailed statement. “On paper, AI can make us more ‘productive’ at our jobs, but the people making those recommendations to UC are management consultants who don’t have the knowledge or expertise we have as workers.”

Russell added that, by unionizing, UC technology workers can bargain to protect their jobs.

The UC Office of the President did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the unionization vote.

Of the technology workers who participated, about 96% voted to unionize, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The unionization campaign took more than a year.

Unionizing will help the workers negotiate wage increases, a lower retirement age, layoff protections and the right to collectively bargain over AI use, the UPTE-CWA 9119 spokesperson said in the emailed statement.

“I chose to make a career at UC because I knew UC stands as a leader in my field,” said Jade Yonehiro, a UC digital library data analyst, in an emailed statement.

“But in the last few years, I’ve watched the working conditions at UC erode— sudden layoffs, higher benefit premiums, and pay that does not keep up with the cost of living in California— which threatens our mission to advance scientific research and make it available to the public.”