📢 Bargaining News
This past Tuesday, our bargaining team, elected by you, met with Academy management to begin the process of bargaining our first contract.
Congratulations to so many of you for turning out in t-shirts and pins to mark this major milestone–your bargaining team noticed and appreciated the support!
Who was there?
Your bargaining team members (present in their CAWU t-shirts) along with Phil Ybarrolaza, our lead negotiator from SEIU 1021, and Mac Stevenson, our SEIU 1021 field representative.
Representing Academy management were Michael Costanzo, Ayat Elnoory, Melissa Felder, Elayne Graylow, Mathew Lau, and Gina Roccanova, the Academy’s labor lawyer.
What happened?
In our first bargaining session, both teams discussed some of the major issues we are looking to change as reflected in your bargaining survey responses. Our bargaining team presented a few proposals related to how our union will work and how our contract will be upheld at the Academy.
What’s next?
Negotiations will continue with Academy management and our bargaining team working out the details of proposals in bargaining sessions. Proposals will be negotiated until management and our bargaining team are satisfied with the details. Those proposals will be considered Tentative Agreements.
Throughout this process, our bargaining team will be listening and consulting with all of us to ensure that when the final collection of tentative agreements are presented to us, it is an agreement that we will want to ratify with a majority vote.
What can you do?
Sign up to be a full CalAcademy Workers United member by clicking here.
Fill out the COVID survey by January 15th. Our bargaining team needs to hear what is important to you about COVID at work. Because we have formed a union, management is obligated to negotiate about changes to COVID policy with our representatives on the bargaining team.
Mark your calendar for the next bargaining sessions on January 17th and January 30th which will also be the next union shirt and pin day.
Talk and ask questions. Reach out to any bargaining team member and share your thoughts.
Join us for lunch on Thursday January 25th from 12–2pm and/or a virtual town hall soon after that.
Concluding thoughts
It has been two years since we started the journey of empowering ourselves to have a say in the conditions of our lives at work. We had to insist on this, and through organization and collective action, we made it happen.
As you celebrate this year’s winter solstice time, and the season of renewal that comes with it, we ask you to take a moment to reflect on the process of renewal happening at the Academy right now. Consider what it will take to achieve further success in achieving a more democratic workplace, and a more resilient, equitable, and effective California Academy of Sciences for all of us.
Happy New Year!
Your bargaining team:
Marie Angel, IBSS
Gaby Farrer, Guest Experience
Nat Kramm, Development
Victoria Langlands, Exhibits & EE & Viz Studio
TR Malcom, Brand Sales & Marketing
Clea Matson, Education
Kelley Prebil, Operations
Holly Rosenblum, Aquarium
