Postdoc Union Reaches Tentative Deal With U. of California

Leaders of a United Auto Workers unit representing 6,000 doctoral researchers at the University of California said Monday that they had reached a tentative agreement with administrators over what would be the union's first-ever contract. A spokesman for the union said he could provide no details on the deal until postdocs ratified the agreement, probably next week. But he said it would improve the researchers' standing on a range of issues, from pay to benefits to working conditions. The UAW has spent years trying to unionize postdocs at UC.