Melissa Atkins Discusses University Union Campaigns in Los Angeles Times

Obermayer labor and employment partner Melissa Atkins was quoted in Los Angeles Times on January 2, 2023, in connection with the University of California (UC) academic workers’ six-week historic strike that ended on December 23, 2022, after scoring groundbreaking protections against bullying and harassment, financial support for child care, dependent healthcare for certain eligible workers and what the majority of union members regard as significant wage gains. The article, titled “UC strike energizes unprecedented national surge of union organizing by academic workers,” discusses the factors that propelled the burst of the nation’s largest labor action of academic workers as well as the possibility that it could reshape the teaching and research enterprise of American higher education. 

“Once you see a university system this large come together and demand livable wages, better benefits … then you’re going to see it across the nation,” said Melissa. “It’s going to be just a ripple effect of university grad students wanting what California obtained.”

Read the full article by Teresa Watanabe here.