What have we done?
Scientists for a Democratic Union are a group of dedicated organizers, including 35 elected Joint Council officers and candidates, who are actively working to make our union a strong force to be reckoned with. The SDU candidates believe in empowering each member to come together and fight to improve their workplace and community. This is done not through overpromises or rhetorical soundbites, but through real action. It is not about building a movement around a leader, but having leaders born of a movement!
Below is a non-exhaustive list of the campaigns, actions, and strategies that have been developed and implemented by SDU members.
Built an Organizing Union and Mass Participation
- Founded the Contract Action Team (CAT) in 2022, which grew to over 190 members, to win our 2025-2027 contract (SDU slate members Justin Garcia, Jacqueline Tkac, Mia Roberts, and Cory Copeland were founding members of the CAT).
- Successfully fought to have CAPS-UAW members attend bargaining with the State as observers, for the first time in our union’s history
- Improved communication during bargaining by hosting numerous town halls and power hours, reshaping how members communicate and build our power during bargaining
- Reformed our local union by prioritizing member-led democracy and 1:1 organizing
- Brought hundreds of scientists into the labor movement through new employee orientations and one-on-one conversations
- Ratifying new bylaws to democratize our union
- Expanded the accessibility of decision-making through hosting monthly membership meetings
- Facilitated getting CAPS members to organizing trainings, the first of its kind, in coordination with members of SEIU Local 1000
- Built out 6 different district-specific organizing committees
Built an Organizing Union and Mass Participation
- Founded the Contract Action Team (CAT) in 2022, which grew to over 190 members, to win our 2025-2027 contract (SDU slate members Justin Garcia, Jacqueline Tkac, and Cory Copeland were founding members of the CAT).
- Successfully fought to have CAPS-UAW members attend bargaining with the State as observers, for the first time in our union’s history
- Improved communication during bargaining by hosting numerous town halls and power hours, reshaping how members communicate and build our power during bargaining
- Reformed our local union by prioritizing member-led democracy and 1:1 organizing
- Brought hundreds of scientists into the labor movement through new employee orientations and one-on-one conversations
- Ratifying new bylaws to democratize our union
- Expanded the accessibility of decision-making through hosting monthly membership meetings
- Facilitated getting CAPS members to organizing trainings, the first of its kind, in coordination with members of SEIU Local 1000
- Built out 6 different district-specific organizing committees
Fought for and Defended Our Rights at Work
- Have a combined experience of filing or supporting the filing of over 97 grievances in the last year
- Have combined experience of serving as a representative during 30 appeals of adverse actions, rejections during probation, and terminations
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Facilitated “train the trainers” and developed materials for over 10 Know Your Rights trainings, including topics such as:
- Know Your Rights
- Know Your Paycheck
- State Disability Insurance
- Contract Enforcement 101
- Weingarten Rights
- Filing Grievances
- Have trained and recruited over 40 scientists to facilitate new employee orientations, statewide
- Helped draft, review, and file 5 separate UPCs fighting the State’s unlawful behavior in the last year
- Organized statewide and district-level contract enforcement teams, made up of over 45 members and growing!
- Empowered hundreds of workers to understand and enforce our contract and rights through Know-Your-Rights and Know-Your-Paycheck trainings
- In 2025, SDU members served on the bargaining team that led to the best side letter out of all of State worker unions. The side letter successfully protected our 2026 raises at the bargaining table and improved our telework rights and protections.
- SDU candidates also were instrumental in leading the organizing effort that led to 79% of rank-and-file members participating in the side letter tentative agreement (TA) ratification vote, with 98.4% of voters approving the TA.
- Have led dozens of department meet and confers related to return to office, supported the training and development for member leaders, and mentored over 20 grievance handlers to enforce their rights to telework
Built Pro-Worker Political Power
- Started our first-ever Political Action Working Group
- Planned and implemented 5 lobby days, with over 100 total members participating in conversations with their legislators
- Organized members attending and speaking at numerous legislative hearings
- Political organizing to elect pro-worker candidates and initiatives, such as Prop 50 to protect our democracy
- Political organizing to protect telework rights and our raises in the State budget
- Started a Coalition of State Civil Service Unions to collaborate on issues impacting all State workers
- Hosted a State Worker Coalition Day of Action in partnership with our union siblings in SEIU Local 1000, CASE, UAPD, AFSCME Local 2620, and AFSCME Council 57 at the State Capitol. The Day of Action included a rally and visits to members of the legislature
Organized the Historic 2023 Defiance for Science Strike and Contract Campaigns
- Led a majority of our coworkers out on strike, planned logistics and ran picket lines to shut down the largest employer in California on November 15-17, 2023
- Planned and executed several majority petition deliveries and mass participation rallies from 2022-2025, including the Union Solidarity and March for Scientists at the California Democratic Party 2023 Convention after our strike
- Successfully rejected the State’s insufficient “Last, Best, and Final” offer during impasse and prevented the State from imposing draconian terms on State Scientists
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Led the escalation campaign that led to a historic successor MOU, which included planning and facilitating:
- “Make it Fair” rally in 2024, with over 200 Scientists in attendance
- A statewide majority photo petition, where 20 scientists delivered the photo petitions to 6 different Agency Secretaries
- Bargained a historic successor MOU after four years being out of a contract that made significant progress toward closing pay equity gaps, geographic pay, longevity pay, and paid family and medical leave, with 91% rank-and-file members participating in the ratification vote, and of the voting members, 97% voted to ratify the total tentative agreement.
Click here for SDU Candidates for the Spring 2026 Election.