FAQ

We are a group of University of Alaska staff from all universities and campuses across the University of Alaska. Our work not only keeps the University of Alaska running but also has lasting impacts on tens of thousands of students. 

By forming a union we are seeking to negotiate as equals with the University administration over wages, benefits, and other working conditions that affect the quality of services provided to UA.

Don't see your question? Please contact us via this email:  info [at] cause-uaw [dot] org. You can also fill out our Get in Touch form to set up a time to talk with a coworker on the organizing committee. 

Forming a union with collective bargaining rights is the only way to have the power to negotiate with the UA Administration as equals and reach a legally binding contract. 

This effort began when staff started talking together about how to improve our working conditions and decided to organize with UAW. Currently, the UA administration has unilateral control over our pay, benefits, and workplace rights. Many of us have high work loads, low pay, and few career advancement opportunities. Aspects of our jobs that we like can be changed at any time without our input. For example, remote work agreements can be cancelled abruptly and our health insurance plans can be altered without our opinions being taken into account. With a union, we gain the right to collectively bargain with UA and a greater voice in our workplace.

Recently, graduate workers at the University of Alaska came together to form UAW 1907 (also known as AGWA-UAW) and bargained a first contract which secures higher pay, full fee waivers, improved job security, workload and nondiscrimination protections and much more.

While UAW began as an auto worker union, there are now over 125,000 higher ed workers in UAW, making UAW one of the largest unions of higher ed workers in the country. In the last year, over 10,000 staff (and counting) have formed unions with UAW at public universities in California and Washington.

UAW has historically been one of the largest and most diverse unions in North America. By joining this movement, staff will also gain political power to impact policy and funding decisions on the local, state, and federal levels.

Our union includes all permanent staff at UA with the exception of certain supervisors, confidential employees, and employees of the UA Foundation. The Alaska Labor Relations Agency oversaw a process of determining who should be excluded from the bargaining unit based on duties and responsibilities. Both the university and our union submitted information in support of that process, which eventually resulted in an agreement between the parties. If you’re wondering whether or not you’re in our unit, please email us at info [at] cause-uaw [dot] org.

Some of the most common issues that come up in our conversations so far are:

• Salaries not keeping up with the cost of living across Alaska

• Expensive and inadequate health insurance coverage

• Unclear job security and vulnerability to sudden reorganizations of units 

• Inconsistent and unprotected remote/hybrid work policies

• Unclear and inequitable promotion policies and advancement/reclassification pathways

• Workload interfering with life and lack of protections from overwork

• A lack of say over our working conditions and lack of consideration for our input

• Protections from unjust firings and retaliation

Our university system has struggled in the past, and while funding has stabilized within the past few years, recent events have reintroduced uncertainty. That’s why it’s so important to be at the table when the administration is making decisions that affect us. With a union, we are legally entitled to complete, transparent information about the University’s budget so that we can be sure that we have a real say in priorities. It also enables us to make responsible choices about our contract.  

Moreover, there are a number of policies that are not directly tied to the budget (for example, remote work agreements, protection against discrimination and harassment, etc.) that we can improve only when we have the ability to bargain as equals. 

Further, as unionized workers, we will have greater power in the state legislature than we do now. In 2024, the graduate workers were able to not only secure funding for their Collective Bargaining Agreement, but also helped push for increased funding for UAF to support its R1 goals. This year, UA Staff have traveled to Juneau to advocate for state funding of our raises. Together, we can use our voices to advocate for both ourselves and our university system.

The election is happening from Wednesday, March 18th to Tuesday, March 31st. Ballots will be sent out via email at 9am on the 18th and the vote will close at 4pm on the 31st. 

The election will be conducted by secret e-ballot under the supervision of the Alaska Labor Relations Associate (ALRA) and will use an electronic voting system administered by Intelivote. When the vote opens, you will receive a personalized ballot to your email inbox with instructions on how to cast your vote. If you run into any difficulty finding your ballot or casting your vote, please reach out to info [at] cause-uaw [dot] org or the Alaska Labor Relations Agency (ALRA) at 907-269-4895.

All permanent staff who are in eligible positions and employed at UA as of 2/18/26 and are also employed throughout the election period are eligible to vote. If you receive a ballot, you are eligible to vote.

Yes - this is a secret ballot election.

Reach out to Alaska Labor Relations Agency (ALRA) at 907-269-4895.

Voting for “CAUSE-UAW” means you support forming a union of, for, and by UA staff, so we can represent and advocate for ourselves while working at UA. If a majority of votes cast are “yes” votes, our union will be formed and we will begin negotiating a contract with the UA Admin. If a majority votes cast are “no” votes, no union will be formed.

After a majority vote for CAUSE-UAW, UA staff will continue to weigh-in on bargaining priorities through surveys, town halls, and conversations. We’ll also elect a bargaining team of our colleagues who will use the survey to draft Initial Bargaining Demands — broad goals for negotiations. All UA staff will vote to ratify these demands. Then, we will bargain our first contract with UA Admin, and staff will vote to ratify that contract.

Yes. International workers have the same rights to vote and participate in their union as US nationals, regardless of visa status. You have an equal say in this election and you will be sent a link to a secret ballot.

No. It is unlawful for employers to retaliate against employees for union activity. Unionizing, and talking to coworkers about unionizing, is legally protected. 

Like other large employers, UA has generally opposed efforts to unionize amongst its employees. That said, UA graduate workers successfully formed their union recently, and many of those involved in organizing have gained permanent positions at UA as faculty or staff.

It’s also important to note that bargaining happens with the UA Admin, not individual supervisors, so many workers have found that their relationships with supervisors have improved because they no longer have to push their supervisors to advocate to address problems stemming from decisions made higher up. 

Yes. If you receive a ballot you are eligible and encouraged to vote.

We will. A great benefit of having a union is that there are established structures and procedures for making decisions, communicating and resolving issues, and the legal and administrative structures to support and facilitate this that we can adapt to our context in Alaska. Being a chapter of a union organization does come with some rules and guidelines (to keep everything legal and copacetic), but as long as local chapter decisions fall within those, the members elected representatives of that chapter make decisions through a democratic process.

Right now we have no say and have no control over decisions that directly impact us. That distinction belongs to the University administration.

Current University policy precludes unionized staff from serving on staff councils. Instead we would bargain as equals with UA Admin over a contract. Just like staff councils, our union is made up of us, the staff! And just like staff council leadership, union leadership - the president, bargaining committee member, shop stewards, etc.- will be democratically elected by us, from amongst us, the staff. 

Staff Councils do lots of great work around the system - advocacy, professional development and staff gatherings. There is no reason that the same work couldn’t continue after we unionize. After all, we are the ones who organize them and make them happen now, and we will be the ones running our union. 

Right now, when it comes to changing our workplace conditions, staff councils can only give recommendations that are routinely ignored. By unionizing, we will be able to negotiate an enforceable Collective Bargaining Agreement with the university as equal partners, and they will be legally obligated to participate in those negotiations.

No. UA cannot make unilateral changes to our working conditions for the duration of contract negotiations. After UA staff vote to form our union on March 18-31, we will negotiate our first contract to protect and improve our benefits. We will also ratify our contract by a majority vote to finalize and implement our newly won rights and benefits. Once in a contract, our benefits cannot be changed unilaterally by the University.

I have a problem with my ballot of some kind (I can’t access it, it’s not working correctly, I didn’t get one and believe I should have, etc.). What should I do?

Reach out to Alaska Labor Relations Agency (ALRA) at 907-269-4895.

We're unaware of any legal prohibition against UA providing a pay increase.  We understand that Admin is claiming that this is not possible, but we know of other instances where a state employer and union agreed to pay increases prior to a complete CBA being ratified. Here's one example of such an agreement between the University of Washington and UAW 4121.  It could be that Admin does not want to provide the increase if we unionize, but this is different from Admin being prevented.

This question really boils down to the fact that until we form our union, UA Admin has unilateral control over our working conditions. Without a union, UA Admin decides unilaterally whether or not to give us a raise, how much that raise would be for, and what kind of raise it is. When we form a union, we have a seat at the table to negotiate wage increases into a legally binding contract.

Collective bargaining is a process, recognized and protected by state law, that equalizes the power relationship between employees and their employer. After unionization, we begin that process of collective bargaining to reach a legally binding contract with the UA administration. As soon as our union is certified, UA must maintain the “status quo” of our current working conditions. That means that we go into contract negotiations with our current conditions as the starting point. Then, we decide democratically what we want to keep about those conditions and what we want to improve. We can propose changes, and the employer can propose changes, but no changes can go into effect without a vote of all staff.  Every step of the way, all of us will have a say - we will democratically elect our bargaining team, vote on our bargaining priorities, and vote to ratify a final contract.

Union dues with UAW are 1.44% of gross monthly pay and you must opt in as a member to pay them.  So if someone makes $60,000 per year (gross), dues would be about $36 per biweekly paycheck. Dues are the independent resources we use to build our organizing and enforce our contract (for example - we’re availing ourselves of UAW member dues to fund this campaign). So they’re important but not compulsory.  If someone wants to pay dues they must voluntarily authorize them. Here’s an example of the document signed by unionized grad workers: https://uaw.jotform.com/form/241176075360049 

Being grant-funded is not unique to staff or UA. Many other unionized employees at UA (including faculty and graduate workers) are partially or fully grant-funded. Historically, when these groups have won raises in their Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA), UA includes these raises and other benefits in the cost of the CBA they present to the state legislature. The state legislature then appropriates the funding for the costs of these raises and other benefits.  Some contracts also include wage escalators further into the future, since these can be easier to anticipate in grant cycles.

Fundamentally, with collective bargaining, we have an equal say with the University administration in determining compensation or other terms/conditions of employment, so will gain far more influence in figuring out a system that works for grant funded positions.

In addition, there are several UAW locals at other institutions such as the Academic Researchers at UC and the Researchers, Scientists, and Engineers at UW that are almost entirely grant funded.They have been able to secure stronger job security through their CBAs, including bridge funding for PIs and greater transparency around changes that may affect their funding. By unionizing, we stand not only to win better benefits, but also stronger job security. Academic Researchers at the University of California actually had to fight for a provision that would allow them to *reduce* their FTE in the event that they needed to spread funds out (the university administration didn’t want to allow this). 

By forming a union, we gain a greater say in how our workplaces function. We determine our bargaining priorities together through extensive surveys, conversations, votes, and more. We can negotiate for clearer job duties, which can make it more transparent when people are excelling at their jobs, and when they aren't meeting expectations.

What we can also negotiate for are stronger protections–such as workload protections and protections against discrimination and harassment—for us when we have coworkers who don’t do their jobs or make the workplace a hostile environment.

Many of us who are organizing our union also like our current working conditions–including remote/hybrid work, flexible schedules, and more–and that’s why we want to form a union. Right now, UA Admin can change the things we like about our working conditions without our input. By forming a union, UA will be required to bargain with us before making any unilateral changes.

Through unionization and collective bargaining, other UAW academic workers have won:

• Guaranteed, predictable pay increases to keep up with cost of living 

• Better healthcare with improved coverage for dependents

• More transparent and enforceable career development provisions

• Stronger protections against arbitrary layoffs,  and the right to performance reviews

• Stronger protections against harassment and discrimination

• Childcare subsidies and more support for parents

• Workload protections

• Clear policies around remote work, vacation and sick time, and increased paid time off

• A grievance process to address contract violations in a clear and timely manner

And much more. For more details on other academic union contracts, check out our comparison chart.

That will be up to us! The decision to strike (like all others within the union) is democratically made, and in Alaska, requires 50%+1 of all members of the unit to vote yes.

Awesome! Email info [at] cause-uaw [dot] org.