UPTE on Organizing 2,100 University of California Tech Workers

Dan Russell, president and chief negotiator of the University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE), Communications Workers of America Local 9119, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast to discuss one of the most significant tech worker organizing wins in recent years.

UPTE has added 2,100 University of California tech workers to its bargaining unit, bringing total membership to 8,400 and making it the largest tech worker bargaining unit in the country. Russell described the effective union avoidance strategy the UC system has used for years — creating new job titles to quietly move work outside the bargaining unit — and how the union's high-visibility strike activity during its last contract campaign helped make those invisible workers visible to themselves.

He also addressed AI anxiety, the fight against a two-tier workforce and what comes next for organizing across the UC system.

• UPTE-CWA Local 9119 organized 2,100 University of California tech workers, bringing its total bargaining unit to 8,400 members and making it the largest tech worker bargaining unit in the United States. The workers had been kept outside the union through a long-standing UC practice of creating new job titles to quietly move technical work out of the bargaining unit, a strategy Russell described as subtle union avoidance that is easy to sustain if the union is not paying attention.
• The organizing drive was sparked in part by UPTE's high-visibility strike activity during its last contract campaign, which gave tech workers who did not know the union existed a direct window into what collective action looks like and why it matters. These workers were also motivated by job security concerns following rounds of mass layoffs at UCSF and UC San Diego. This was coupled with a sense that management was making top-down decisions about their work without consulting the frontline workers whose expertise and experience those decisions directly affected.
• Russell described AI as the most significant looming concern for newly organized UC tech workers, pointing to a New York Times Magazine account of a disastrous AI rollout at San Jose State University as an example of what happens when management implements new technology without involving frontline workers in the process. The goal of getting these workers into the union before a mass AI rollout, he said, was to ensure they have a seat at the table when those decisions are made.

The Largest Tech Worker Bargaining Unit in the Country

Dan Russell has been an IT worker at UC Berkeley for nearly 14 years and has been president of UPTE-CWA Local 9119 for the past five. He was not a union member when he was hired. He was organized into the union in 2016 — recruited into a bargaining unit he did not know he belonged in, because the university had spent years creating new job titles to move technical work outside the union's reach.

That experience shaped everything that followed. Russell watched the practice continue, watched the bargaining unit fragment, watched the union's power at the negotiating table diminish as more and more tech workers ended up in the same position he had been in — technically outside the union through a classification decision management had made without any meaningful scrutiny. The solution was to bring them in.

The result: 2,100 University of California tech workers organized into UPTE's bargaining unit, bringing total membership to 8,400 and making UPTE the largest tech worker bargaining unit in the United States.

How the Organizing Drive Came Together

The spark came through visibility. During UPTE's last contract campaign, the union went on strike over the university's unfair labor practices. Thousands of workers marching across campuses, shutting down operations and making their presence impossible to ignore gave tech workers who had never engaged with the union a direct demonstration of what collective action actually looks like. For workers who were frustrated about working conditions, worried about job security and feeling undervalued by management, seeing the union in action was the catalyst, Russell said.

The concerns from those workers were created by rounds of mass layoffs at UC San Francisco and UC San Diego. Workers were being handed top-down directives about how their departments should run, with no input from the technical workers whose expertise and judgment were supposed to inform those decisions. One member of UPTE's executive board had actually been moved into one of the non-union titles — making him not just a supporter of the organizing drive but a founding participant.

Russell acknowledged that organizing across the large University of California system poses unusual structural challenges. Tech workers can be the only person in their job classification in an entire building. They do not encounter each other organically. The union had to build connections between people who, without the strike visibility and deliberate organizing outreach, would never have found each other.

What Comes Next

The cards have been submitted to the Public Employment Relations Board. Certification is expected within the next few weeks, pending the employer's standard response confirming majority status. Once certified, UPTE will conduct title-specific negotiations with the university to establish pay scales for each of the newly covered job classifications. The existing UPTE contract runs through late 2028, giving the new members time to learn the union, identify workplace issues and begin shaping the changes they want to see when the contract reopens.

Russell stressed that this organizing win does not represent the finish line. There are additional UC tech workers not yet in the bargaining unit, as well as healthcare workers and researchers across the system without union representation. The goal, he said, is to ensure that every professional and technical employee at the University of California is in a union — eliminating the two-tier workforce dynamic that weakens the union's power at the bargaining table and denies non-union workers the rights their colleagues have.

AI: Getting to the Table Before the Rollout Happens

The most immediate concern Russell described is artificial intelligence. The UC system has not yet implemented AI systematically, but there is real anxiety among tech workers. A New York Times Magazine account of a mass AI rollout at San Jose State University — described as a disaster — illustrated exactly what can happen when management deploys new technology without involving the frontline workers best positioned to assess its implications.

Getting these workers into the union before a mass AI rollout would give them a voice in how that technology is introduced, how it affects their work and what safeguards are put in place, Russell said. Without union representation, they would have no formal mechanism to push back. With it, they have the right to bargain over workplace changes that affect their jobs, their safety and the quality of the services they provide to UC patients, researchers and students.

Russell concluded with advice for any tech worker considering union organizing at their own institution. He encouraged these workers to reach out to UPTE if you are in the University of California system. If you are elsewhere, he suggested contacting your local labor council. He also stressed the importance of understanding that while organizing takes real work, there is no downside to union representation.

More information is available at upte.org.

Go Behind the Scenes of the Labor Movement

Every victory at the bargaining table starts with workers standing together. From the shop floor to the statehouse, hear how activists are fighting for better wages, safer conditions and a stronger future. Subscribe to the America's Work Force Union Podcast to get the latest interviews with the leaders and organizers building worker power across America.