Fellow Scientists, 

Things are moving quickly in an ever changing landscape of budget updates, union agreements, and efforts to protect our contract and telework flexibility. Please read below to learn more. 

Legislature announces budget act of 2025

SB 102, the state budget senate bill, 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 a notice from CalHR yesterday 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.

A number of unions have reached agreements in the last week:

CCPOA – Total tentative agreement

PECG – Total tentative agreement & Side Letter

CSLEA – Side Letter

These agreements reflect the uncertain landscape state employees currently face: trade-offs between conditions including time off, salary increases, OPEB contributions, and RTO. These unions fought and won strong agreements for their members that balance the state’s current financial reality and state employees rights as a whole. 

CAPS-UAW is fighting for State Scientists’ Rights

State Scientists are united in fighting for strong working conditions and defending our contract. Although there is uncertainty right now about what will happen with state scientist compensation and the return to office mandate, CAPS-UAW remains clear about our priorities: we will fight to protect our hard-fought salary increases and do everything we can to maintain maximal work flexibility for all state scientists. 

That means:

• Follow the state budget hearing here: https://sbud.senate.ca.gov/  where CAPS-UAW will make sure the legislature knows we won’t stand for balancing the budget on our backs 

• Stay tuned for updates from the next mediation date with PERB, where your Bargaining Committee will discuss resolving the UPC filed against the governor’s unlawful RTO mandate 

• 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 

• Attend a worksite meeting to stay up to date and keep your coworkers informed about how to fight back 

In Solidarity,

Jacqueline Tkac, President
John Downs, Director At Large
Mia Roberts, Director At Large 
Jessy Fierro, District I Director
Alex Rangel, District II Director
Robert Haerr, District IV Director
Monty Larson, District V Director