To: The Campus Community
From: Thomas F. Rosenbaum, President; David A. Tirrell, Provost
Date: December 1, 2023
On Thursday, members of the group Caltech Graduate Students and Postdocs United notified the Institute in two separate letters that they intend to file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking to have the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) as their representative to negotiate collective bargaining agreements covering working conditions for Caltech graduate student researchers and teaching assistants, and postdocs.
This is an important development, and we want to make sure that all members of the community are informed about the latest events and their implications.
The next steps in the process may unfold quickly. All members of the community, in particular graduate students and postdocs who may be eligible to be represented by the union and will have a decision to make, should become informed about the issues at hand.
As an Institute, we feel strongly that graduate students and postdocs should have a voice in how their interests in various areas —such as wages, benefits, and working conditions—are represented. We will not recognize union representation on the basis of a petition alone because we are a community that values the exchange of ideas, and we believe that every eligible member of our community should have an opportunity to cast a vote in a fair, open, government-supervised secret ballot election conducted by the NLRB.
We respect our graduate students' and postdocs' advocacy and their desire to make the Caltech experience the best it can be. We share their interest in ensuring that we have a supportive, inclusive, and rewarding training environment that allows all members of the community to develop and realize their full potential, even as we may disagree about the best means to secure that future.
We will update you in the coming weeks about next steps and how those who are eligible can vote once the NLRB process proceeds to an election. We encourage you to visit unionizationinfo.caltech.edu to learn more about unionization and Institute leadership's perspective on the matter, and to discuss this very important decision with your peers. Please feel free to reach out with any questions that you may have via the Institute's online contact form.