Governor Newsom signed AB 102, the State Budget Assembly Bill, on Friday and the Legislature is holding a hearing tomorrow regarding an accompanying trailer bill, SB 131.
In a surprising move, the Governor announced that his signature on the State budget (including AB 102) is contingent on the enactment of SB 131, which the legislature will be voting on tomorrow. SB 131, in its current form, would be a dramatic rollback to environmental protections established in California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). As the people issuing and monitoring permits, we know that the reason for CEQA delays is the chronic understaffing of the state agencies who monitor compliance. Not only does SB 131 not address this issue, the budget bill seeks to compound this issue by reducing funding for state employee compensation and making the already hard to fill positions even less competitive. The harm posed to our workers by this policy, and the work we do as State Scientists, along with assaults on the democratic process, poses a need for action. Our Union is joining a chorus of opposition and has issued this letter and you can turnout to comment on the budget and CEQA bill by RSVPing here (and follow the hearing here).
Does the State Budget fund our Contract?
AB 102 partially funds State employee compensation and encourages bargaining units to meet and confer in good faith with the Governor or the Governor’s representative before July 1, 2025. CAPS-UAW received yet another notice from CalHR on Saturday, stating that the union may reach out if we would like to meet about the budget. Your CAPS-UAW Bargaining Committee maintains that we have an agreed-upon contract and do not need to go back to the table unless required by law.
Under the Dills Act, if the Legislature does not fully fund our memorandum of understanding (MOU), we have the obligation to bargain with the State in good faith. Fulfilling our obligation, CAPS-UAW submitted a Request for Information last week to understand to what extent BU10 compensation was/not funded in the Budget Act of 2025, and included necessary requests for information to inform our bargaining position on a number of priority non-economic items. Reopening our MOU and bargaining with the State is inappropriate without the Union having necessary and relevant information to bargain as equals. Without a clear answer on whether the Budget Act of 2025 fully funds our MOU and other needed pieces of information, we are not going to reopen our MOU.
What’s happening with RTO?
This Administration has continued to try to pressure CAPS-UAW into reopening our contract, and has shown through multiple union agreements that it will likely agree to delay RTO if the union agrees to PLP hours and/or salary delays. We have now been largely singled out, subject to a four-day return-to-office mandate while other bargaining units were granted the opportunity to bargain over the impacts of EO-N-22-25 and a subsequent delay in its implementation in return for reaching salary agreements.
We believe that this decision to delay RTO for some state employees and not others is an attempt to undermine our MOU, and coerce us into taking concessions. Instead of respecting the MOU we fought for and the scientific work we perform for the State of California, this Administration is choosing to target Unit 10 Scientists with harmful and disruptive tactics.
Within the past month, CAPS-UAW has reiterated our demand to bargain, filed numerous grievances for contract violations related to the implementation of EO-N-22-25, including inadequate notification regarding requests to establish or amend telework agreements, and you can see our ever-growing list of grievances filed related to the implementation of EO-N-22-25 here. Over 400 State Scientists filled out the survey indicating violations of our Telework rights.
On Wednesday, we have our next scheduled Informal Settlement Conference with PERB and CalHR, which gives us another opportunity to negotiate over the implementation of EO-N-22-25 and resolve the issues outlined in our unfair practice charge we filed on March 11.
What Happens Now? Sign This Petition, Take the Sunshine Survey
CAPS-UAW negotiated our current MOU in good faith, after four years without a contract. We received no general salary increases in 2022 or 2023. We went on strike. We ratified our current agreement by a historic 97% of voting members, and the Governor signed it into law. The contract is binding through July 1, 2027. We have upheld our side of the agreement, and we expect the State to do the same.
Sign this petition demanding Newsom stop singling out Scientists for defending our rights.
Take the Budget Sunshine Survey here, so your Bargaining Committee can ensure we represent state scientists’ priorities if we are forced back to the bargaining table.