We’re Joining Together for a Better USC

We are joining together as a union so we can bargain collectively with the University of Southern California. We are also joining thousands of other UAW researchers across the US to build our political voice to increase science funding and protect the rights of international researchers.

Without collective bargaining, we have experienced stagnant wages in relation to cost of housing and living, as well as visa and job insecurity, and a lack of transparency in administrative policies. With collective bargaining, we can negotiate a binding agreement so that USC cannot change the terms of our employment without our consent. When we are able to communicate and negotiate as equals with USC, and as a result live more securely, we will be able to focus more on quality research. 

As employees from across USC’s two campuses, we have formed a union in order to improve our working conditions and to make the institution a better and more accessible place for research and scholarship. Like thousands of employees at USC and thousands of academic researchers who already have unions at research institutions across the US, we deserve the voice and respect we gain through collective bargaining.

Use the form to sign a union authorization card and be counted in the majority!

We are joining together in a union so we can bargain collectively with USC, because together we have far more power to negotiate than we have as individuals. Collective bargaining means more rights and more capacity to shape our own lives. We are joining tens of thousands of UAW researchers across the US in fighting for better working conditions, wages, and benefits.

Without a union:

• USC unilaterally determines our working conditions and can change them at any time without our consent.

With a union:

• We elect a bargaining committee that gathers input from academic researchers across UPC and HSC campuses.
• Our bargaining committee negotiates on equal footing toward a fair agreement with USC.
• We decide democratically, through a vote, whether to approve any agreement as our contract.
• That contract secures our terms and conditions of employment and is binding and enforceable through appeal to a neutral arbitrator.