As UC-AFT librarians celebrate our second raise in as many months — a direct result of the successful contract negotiations that concluded this spring — we want to send our sincere thanks to all the people outside our union who supported us during a nearly year-long bargaining process. From the very first “turn out” for UC-AFT librarian bargaining more than a year ago, the energy of our supporters was evident. Grad students, lecturers, staff, and faculty from across a wide variety of units came out to cheer on our bargaining team and let UC librarians know that the community supported us. Our demands echoed those heard across the different UC employee unions: fair pay and good working conditions so that we can focus on supporting our students and researchers rather than focusing on making ends meet. UC works because we do!
With your support we won significant pay raises structured to provide greater increases to lower-ranking librarians, a commitment to academic freedom for all non-teaching academic employees, and clarification of certain family leave and vacation time benefits. The University’s negotiators clearly felt the pressure from our numerous actions including rallies, petitions, and people filling the negotiation rooms. Without the support of our community — you! — our work would have been that much harder.
Thank you.
UC-AFT Unit 17 Organizing Committee
UC-AFT Librarians Blog 
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