What Led Us Here

Clear and equitable pathways for advancement and career development

Too often, promotion and reclassification processes are opaque, leaving us uncertain about our future opportunities. We believe in establishing specific timelines and transparent promotion criteria to ensure fairness and clarity for all. Additionally, we’re pushing for increased training and professional development opportunities. Many of us feel unsupported in this area, and we know that investing in our skills benefits both us and the institution. Together, we can create a stronger, more supportive environment for all research professionals who enable cutting-edge research throughout Berkeley Lab.

Fair compensation

Salary is one of the main considerations for any employee. Berkeley Lab is in a high-cost-of-living (HCoL) area, which makes pay an even greater concern. For some roles at the Lab, median pay can fall below low-income thresholds, and many Lab employees worry about maintaining a comfortable standard of living despite working full-time. Many of us have valuable skill sets that, in the private sector, could net us substantially more in pay, but most of us value the immensely meaningful work we do at the Lab. Unfortunately, this sometimes means that our passion and investment in our work are exploited to pay us less than our worth.

In the last several years, many of us have also been feeling the squeeze of inflation and the increased cost of living. The Lab offers only meager raises to non-union employees like us, whose pay has failed to keep pace with inflation and the rising cost of living. For many who have worked in a Lab role for more than a couple of years, our salaries are worth less in real terms than they were when we started. Unionized academic positions have negotiated substantial cost-of-living increases in recent years, but non-unionized positions have lagged behind.

We deserve pay commensurate with our level of experience and education. Pay that allows us to live without struggle in the area where we work, including guaranteed raises that — at a bare minimum — keep pace with the rising costs of living.

Over the last ten years, wage increases for all unionized UC staff members, including many of our colleagues at the Lab, have dramatically outpaced raises for non-represented staff.

A recent report by the Council of UC Staff Assemblies (CUCSA) showed that staff who are not in unions (“99-Policy Covered”) ranked last in total income increases, as shown in the graphs below. Our wages have increased by 10-37% LESS than those of our unionized counterparts.

“99 – Policy Covered” means non-union, the far left blue bar in the left graph, and the lowest blue line in the right graph, in last place. Each of the other bars/lines represents UC and LBNL staff covered by various union contracts. The report poses an important question: Why are non-unionized staff last to be considered when it comes to budget priorities? For many of us, the answer is straightforward: We currently lack the power and rights that come with being recognized as a bargaining unit capable of negotiating on equal terms with UC. This is a right that most other LBNL and UC employees already enjoy, and it is past time that Science, Technology, and Engineering Professionals at Berkeley Lab also gain a seat at the table. (Source: CUCSA Total Compensation, Workgroup Report FY 2023-2024)

The data could not be clearer about how unionizing could affect our pay increases. But the goals of unionization go beyond that. By forming a union, we gain a stronger voice to advocate for improved policies and increased funding to meet our needs and support LBNL’s mission. 

Protections from overwork (work-life balance)

Excessive working hours and overwork issues are widespread among research and public service professionals at LBNL. We often have little control over our schedules and have to work against deadlines imposed by external sources. For many of us, the lines between work and personal time are blurred, and we are often expected to be “on” when we are supposed to be off (i.e., outside working hours). We may find ourselves routinely working into the night and on weekends without additional compensation, under the assumption that it is expected as part of our job, and we lack the ability to say no. 

We deserve the right to live a full life outside our jobs, and, as such, our jobs should support a good quality of life while also giving us time for life outside of work. We deserve to set firm boundaries regarding the work we perform and to establish a mutually beneficial expectation that we are only required to work during our agreed-upon working hours and cannot be expected to be “always on” and fully accessible. 

Comprehensive worker health, welfare, and leave benefits

Our union includes a great diversity of workers whose employment benefits should be commensurate with our diverse needs. Our benefits as staff lag far behind international standards, and many workers at LBNL and workers in several institutions throughout the state. We have similar commitments to family, but do not have sufficient parental leave. We have the same basic healthcare needs, but often have inadequate health care and have faced recent increases in premiums that further burden our families. We need time off from work – for recreation and recharging – but many of us receive considerably less paid time off than other Lab workers and roughly a quarter as much as other workers around the globe.  

We face long commutes because of the scarcity of reasonable housing near work, but we have to pay daily commuting costs. Improving our benefits through better parental leave policies, lower health care premiums tied to better health care plans, increased paid time off, and access to transit subsidies are fundamental benefits to the entire community. 

Banding together as a union is not merely a step towards improving our individual lives; it’s a stride towards elevating the Lab as a whole to meet and set international standards for employee welfare and institutional excellence.