California scientists reach tentative union agreement after years of negotiations

After over four years of contract negotiations, scientists who work for the state of California may have finally reached the finish line.

The California Association of Professional Scientists reached a tentative agreement this month after a yearlong campaign that included marching on the Capitol, joining forces with a powerful national union and a strike last year.

The tentative agreement, which CAPS President Jacqueline Tkac described as “historic,” includes salary increases for all members, paid family leave and longevity pay for scientists who have worked for California for 17 or more years.

“We’ve worked really hard for this over the last couple years and I think it’s really a testament to our members’ hard work and our solidarity,” Tkac said. “This contract provides a lot of wins for us as scientists and, by extension, for science in California.”

The California Department of Human Resources said in a statement that both parties agreed to return to the bargaining table after the union rejected a final offer by the state in December. CalHR said the department was “pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with CAPS-UAW.”

The personnel department said it was preparing a summary of the deal, including the cost to taxpayers, to present to the Legislature. In order for the contract to be adopted, the union members need to ratify the agreement and both the governor and the Legislature must sign off.

For everyone in the bargaining unit, the new contract would guarantee three salary increases beginning retroactively in July 2024. Tkac said those adjustments range between 14% and 23% for scientists at the top of their salary range. For those who have not maxed out their salary range, the cumulative salary adjustment is a 9% increase.

For scientists with 17 years or more of experience with the state, the tentative agreement includes a monthly differential that begins at 2% and increases over time to 5.5%. Tkac said this past April was the first time the state returned a proposal to CAPS that included longevity pay — a provision state scientists have been requesting for decades.

“With longevity pay, it not only incentives people to actually make a career of being a state scientist, but also acknowledges how critical the work that those scientists who have been around for 17 plus years are doing,” Tkac said.

Other items in the agreement include a monthly differential for employees living in six Bay Area counties with a high cost of living, wage replacement benefits through disability insurance and eight weeks of paid family leave.

CAPS’ last contract expired in July 2020. Since then, issues of pay inequity have festered. Tkac said some CAPS members make 40% less than their colleagues who are engineers and represented by a different public sector union. CAPS represents roughly 5,300 state employees who monitor food safety, air and water pollution and other valuable natural resources.

Frustrated with ongoing pay disparities within their unit, the unit made history last fall by becoming the first group of state workers to go on strike in California since civil servants won collective bargaining rights in 1977 through the Ralph C. Dills Act.

In December, the scientists union rejected the state’s “last, best and final offer,” marking just the second time in California a public employee union has rejected such a proposal.

Under the Dills Act, Cal HR can choose to impose any or all provisions of the “last, best and final offer” if the union rejects that proposal. But before the state moved ahead with those provisions, negotiations between the state scientists and CalHR resumed in April, according to a CAPS bargaining update.

That same month, three in four CAPS members voted in an election to become an affiliate of the United Auto Workers, a powerful national union that represents more than 600 locals across the country. Of those voting members, 88% voted yes.