Student assistants have voted to unionize under California State University Employees Union (CSUEU) after the polls closed on this issue on Thursday.
Union spokesperson Khanh Weinberg said in an interview with the Daily Forty-Niner that eligible student assistants voted on whether or not to unionize. According to a CSUEU press release, the first step toward unionization was made possible with 97% approval.
According to a press release, the election took place from Jan. 25 to Feb. 22. It was overseen by the California Public Employment Relations Board and conducted electronically for the most part.
A Zoom recording of the announcement and press conference showed representatives from the CSUEU chapters gathered on their campuses to watch the election updates via Zoom. Student assistants also gathered in person. According to the press release, the announcement took place at the offices of the California Public Employment Relations Board.
“I want to thank the students and the union leaders, everybody here,” Cameron Macedonio, communications major at California State University Fullerton, said during the press conference. “You guys all helped us make history by joining us today, by hitting the ground with us, by campaigning with us.”
Gem Gutierrez, a student assistant at Sacramento State, spoke at the press conference about the impact this election could have on future students.
“While many of us will only be here for four years, we know that this isn’t just for us,” Gutierrez said. “This is for every worker who comes after us, who deserves the same protections as our union colleagues we will now stand with as we negotiate for our first contract.”
Nonetheless, winning this election does not mean that these workers are automatically union members. Weinberg said there is still a required process in order to join CSUEU.
“There’s two components to that question […],” Weinberg said. “The legal process is we wait 10 days for PERB [Public Employment Relations Board] to certify CSUEU to be the union to represent these 20,000 workers [student assistants eligible for union membership].”
She said the other component concerns students entering the organization.
“Once we represent these 20,000 workers, there will be a union membership card that the students can sign up to become members and contribute to union dues,” Weinberg said.
She said applications are not open to student workers yet and that the bargaining survey, where students can also vote on their priorities in negotiating their first contract, is the next step.
“Through the bargaining survey we are asking for people to raise their hands, signal their interest to do more with the union and then we will circle back and email them your nomination forms,” Weinberg said. “It’s like a voting process you know to be a bargaining team member.”
CSUEU President Catherine Hutchinson said during the press conference that student workers should have the right to unionize because they do the same work that union members do.
“Two years ago, when student assistants came to us, we embraced them,” Hutchinson said. “We told them we wanted to help them form a union because it was the right thing to do. They do our union work, they should have a union.”