From JPL’s Website: How collective bargaining works

What They Wrote

Our Response

The contract negotiation team may be composed of UAW representatives and a group of JPLers. This team will have the sole authority to represent everyone in the bargaining unit.

In UAW, bargaining is a highly democratic process and JPL employees are involved at every step. JPLers will elect peer representatives who will draft bargaining proposals, solicit feedback from JPL colleagues, and bargain the contract. We will circulate bargaining surveys, vote on bargaining priorities, host town halls and have many conversations with colleagues to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard. This peer-led process contrasts with the current status quo, in which management has the sole authority to make decisions for everyone at JPL.

During negotiations, the union is allowed to ask for the things it promised you and for things the union wants in the contract – such as the ability to collect mandatory dues from all bargaining unit members.

    Our bargaining priorities will be democratically decided by JPLers, including the structure of union dues (which are 1.44%). Most contracts include a non-union-member “fair share” fee, so that the cost of representation is shared equally and we have more resources available to enforce our rights and campaign for future contracts.

      The bargaining process is just that – a give and take between both parties. And the union can trade away things that you care about to get what it wants. During contract negotiations, your pay, benefits, and terms and conditions of employment would be bargained by the union, and the union may trade something that you value for something it prioritizes.

      After we win certification or recognition of our union, workers will fill out bargaining surveys to articulate priorities for a contract. We will also elect representatives, fellow coworkers, to a bargaining committee. Guided by the feedback in the bargaining surveys, the elected committee develops initial bargaining demands that we vote to approve. The elected bargaining committee will then work on drafting a contract proposal to bring to the bargaining table. Once bargaining begins, management and JWU-UAW will meet many times to discuss our proposals and negotiate over language that both sides can agree to. Once a tentative agreement is reached, workers must vote to accept or reject the contract before it goes into effect.

      Most private sector employees are not represented by a union. More than 90% of private sector workers have a direct working relationship with their employers and can discuss their pay and benefits and collaborate with their employer about changes and improvements without paying a union to represent them.

      Researchers, scientists, and academic workers are increasingly forming unions. A union’s strength comes from workers being able to collectively bargain to improve their workplace. Individual employees have very limited power in negotiating changes to their working conditions, but by joining together those same workers can meaningfully impact their conditions and bargain for improvements. That is why UAW alone has over 125,000 members at research institutions and is part of a growing wave of unionization at academic and research institutions.

      You may not know the details of all the deals the union is making until the contract negotiations are done and the union asks you to ratify a proposed contract.

      Bargaining is an open, participatory process: JPL workers can attend bargaining sessions, receive regular bargaining updates via email, share updates on social media and the website, hold town halls and conversations to update colleagues about bargaining progress, and post a publicly accessible bargaining tracker to see all proposals. After many conversations and opportunities to participate in bargaining, all JPLers will vote to ratify the tentative contract.

      Risks of Bargaining


      No time limit.

      Bargaining can take months or years. In fact, according to an analysis of first contracts by Bloomberg Law, the average time to negotiate a first contract is currently 465 days.


      The length of time necessary to

      negotiate a strong first contract

      depends on the strength of the campaign

      and the willingness of the employer to

      bargain in good faith. For example, JPL

      could help ensure a timely process by

      agreeing on a fair and efficient timeframe with

      regularly scheduled bargaining sessions and

      a strong commitment to reaching a fair

      agreement. Earlier this year, Caltech graduate and postdoc workers negotiated their first contract in 12 months. Postdocs at University of Washington, and University of California negotiated for 13 months and 18 months respectively, while graduate students at USC negotiated their first contract in 8 months. However, with a serious commitment to reach a fair agreement by the administration, 4,000 student employees at the University of Washington negotiated their first contract in just under two months!

      Risks of Bargaining


      No unilateral changes.

      During bargaining, the company must maintain the “status quo” and cannot unilaterally make new changes to wages, benefits, or working conditions, even if those changes are advantageous to the employees in the bargaining unit.

      This claim is correct but highly misleading. During bargaining, management will not be able to make unilateral changes to our working conditions - in other words, they cannot make changes without the consent of JPL workers. Routine raises and other scheduled benefits are part of the “status quo” and would continue, but if JPL wants to make any change to wages, benefits, working conditions, they must bargain with our elected representatives.

      Risks of Bargaining


      No guarantees.

      A contract must be agreed to by the union and the employer – a union cannot unilaterally decide any issue for the employer.

      Through collective bargaining, we would have a meaningful voice over working conditions and agree on those terms with management in a legally binding contract. Once a contract is ratified, the employer cannot make any unilateral alterations. This contrasts with current policy, in which upper management sets (and takes away) benefits, wages, etc. It is easy for an employer to ignore an individual employee’s concerns, but when employees come together to form a union, we have the strength to make ourselves heard. Through collective bargaining, millions of working people in unions have higher wages, better benefits, and safer workplaces.

      Risks of Bargaining


      What’s on the table.

      Your current wages, benefits, and terms and conditions of employment would be negotiated by the union in collective bargaining negotiations. The union may bargain away something that you value in exchange for something the union values since the union would be your exclusive legal representative.

      With collective bargaining, we set our priorities and our agenda, and we elect fellow peers as representatives to negotiate for improvements to our working conditions on our behalf. Ultimately, any tentative agreement that the bargaining team reaches must be ratified by a democratic vote of workers represented by JWU-UAW.

      Without a union, upper management retains unilateral power to change conditions, for better or worse. Forming a union not only gives us a say in our day-to-day working lives, but also strengthens our voice in an increasingly difficult external environment. And, as a part of a nationwide movement to unionize, we are collectively improving conditions across the board, not just here at JPL.

      In a typical union contract, you’ll see language that says the company has the right to:

      • Allocate its resources, manage its facilities, and direct the workforce – including directing the working location of its employees

      • Hire, promote, transfer, demote, and/or lay off employees

      • Sub-contract or contract out work

      • Establish and modify policies, and rules and regulations governing safety, performance, procedures, and conduct

      Union contracts typically include a “management rights” article in which the parties agree on the rights management retains after we have agreed to terms over which upper management no longer has unilateral control. Most of those clauses (including at Caltech and UC) specify that management no longer has that right if they agreed to a different term elsewhere in the contract.

      Forming a union does not mean that the employer can no longer manage the workplace. Management generally retains that responsibility, but they must negotiate over mandatory subjects of bargaining: wages, hours, and working conditions of JPL employees. Remote work agreements, discipline and dismissal, health and safety, and performance review processes fall under the category of mandatory subjects, so it’s highly misleading to say that the employer will unequivocally retain the ability to make changes without our agreement. Likewise, it would be untrue to say that the workers can unilaterally decide on these policies. With collective bargaining, management and JPL workers must agree to terms and conditions.

      • NIH Fellows “have the right to request an ongoing telework arrangement and can challenge unreasonable denials.”

      • NIH management can only discipline or terminate a Fellow’s appointment with “just cause”. This means that all discipline must be fair and is subject to the union grievance procedure.

      • UW Researchers increased layoff notices from 30 to 45 days.

      • UW Researchers have the right to appeal to a neutral third party arbitrator as final decisionmaker over contract disputes.

      • NIH Fellows can only be required to work as much as is reasonably necessary to complete the project, typically 40 hours per week.

      • NIH Fellows have the enforceable right to work in a safe and healthy environment and NIH is required to follow OSHA safety recommendations.

      • NIH Fellows have the right to receive accommodations for access needs. NIH must engage in an interactive process that allows the worker to determine what accommodations they need.

      We would highly recommend checking out our webpage on contract wins, specifically the before/after documents. https://jplworkersunited.org/uaw-contract-wins

      With or without a union, JPL has the responsibility to run the Lab.

      Without a union, upper management unilaterally makes all decisions, and may or may not consider our perspectives. With a union, they must reach an agreement with JPL workers over working conditions.

      Less Than You Bargained For

      The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that:

      “… collective bargaining is potentially hazardous for employees and that as a result of such negotiations employees might possibly wind up with less after unionization than before." — Coach and Equipment Sales Corp., 228 NLRB 440

      There is no way to guarantee that collective bargaining will only result in changes that you support or that benefits you currently value will remain in place.

      This is misleading. The NLRB has not held that collective bargaining is hazardous. The case management quotes ruled that employers may state that, in their opinion, organizing can be hazardous. But it is only their opinion, and as our examples show, not the factual experience of most of the groups that have organized with the UAW recently.

      Our power to win a strong contract is entirely dependent on how many people participate in the process. The more of us who sign union authorization cards, vote yes for JWU-UAW in the union election, fill out bargaining surveys, vote on the initial bargaining demands, etc., the more power we have to improve or protect our working conditions. All JPLers will get to vote on the final contract, therefore we find it unlikely that JPL workers would vote for a contract with less benefits than we currently have.