We’re University Professional & Technical Employees (UPTE), the union of over 26,000 healthcare, research, and technical professionals at the University of California.

By joining UPTE, you immediately gain access to the comprehensive career benefits we’ve already won. And we’re always fighting for more—our workplace reps constantly push for better conditions and tailored benefits for each department and job title.

Want to learn more? Check out what UPTE members have won through organizing, our member stories, and our FAQ section.

Ready to get started? The first step is to complete our organizing intake form below.

Have questions first? Connect with an organizer.

Count me in—I want to become an UPTE member!

Member stories

Learn more about the UPTE difference from the people who know it best—UPTE members.

  • Behavioral Health Counselor 3

    As someone in a helping profession such as mental health, I want longevity in my career. I want to be able to be there for students longterm. Knowing we have our rights and raises enshrined in our contract makes me feel like I have a much more sustainable career. 

    Even amid the uncertain federal funding situation, I’m a lot more confident that I will continue to have raises and protections because of our strong contract and even stronger will to enforce it. Just last fall, UPTE made sure that UC wasn’t playing a shell game with me when they hit my department with a wave of title changes and reclassification. It’s invaluable to have that kind of support, especially when it comes to my future.

    Your protections and compensation at work shouldn’t depend on the benevolence (or not) of your boss. They shouldn’t depend on your ability to glad-hand management or on the sheer luck of landing on a good team. They should be ironclad.

  • Business Technical Support Analyst 2

    It was a no-brainer to join UPTE when I got the chance. I know that the University of California is a huge employer, and the only way you would even stand a chance against this behemoth of an employer is if you stand in solidarity with your co-workers and collectively bargain in a strong union. 

    I’ve seen it before in other positions I’ve had—It didn’t matter if you were a rockstar employee, you still were at the mercy of whatever leadership felt like doing. I would much prefer being in our union rather than beg for a 0.25% raise and hope the UC felt like giving it to me. I’ve seen too much in my career; management would tell us we’re doing a great job, and then come back with, “We can’t afford to give you a raise this year even though you’ve worked 70 hours a week for six months, because of our budget.”

    There’s no reason to just take it on the nose. Your best shot is to join with your fellow workers and fight together as one.  

  • System Administrator 3

    I’ve been working here since 1997, and now I can safely say I feel I have seen it all as a UCLA IT worker—sometimes you get good management, and sometimes it’s very bad. I was finally able to join UPTE just a few years ago, and I am grateful every day for that. In addition to making sure I received a 9% salary increase with interest, I believe the union helped save my job.

    After I joined UPTE, there was a major “restructuring” in my department—something I liken to the Red Wedding from Game of Thrones—and so many of my longtime colleagues who weren’t UPTE members (and even my supervisor) ultimately lost their jobs. As a union member with more protections during reorganization initiatives like that, it made me want to be even more involved in UPTE, to try to prevent this kind of thing happening to anyone again. 

    Management can do pretty much whatever they want to a worker without a strong union—downsizing, outsourcing, withholding raises, and more. You don’t have a lot of hope fighting any of that by yourself. Union membership can make all the difference.

  • Behavioral Health Counselor 2

    When I found out my position was going to be represented by UPTE, I signed my card right away. I was immediately on board. At that point, I had been working for UCI for a year and ten months and I hadn’t received a raise of any kind. Thanks to UPTE, my income almost doubled within the first year of representation.

    On top of the huge income boost, I also received more vacation and sick time (and in separate banks, unlike before), and had my retirement age lowered to 60, which is five years earlier than prior. That is super important to me, those five years. I live two hours away from my work due to the astronomical cost of living in Orange County, so it’s amazing to know that I don’t have to make this commute every day into my mid-60s. 

    Besides the financial and retirement benefits, I really value having the protection of the union in and of itself. I know who to call if I have an issue. I know how to enforce our contract. As a worker, you have so much at stake without the union. HR and UC management are not in your favor. I know from experience who is truly on my side. 

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

  • UPTE is a democratically run, member-driven union of over 22,000 professional career staff across the University of California system, California Community Colleges, and United States Department of Energy laboratories. Composed of a variety of technical, healthcare, and research workers, UPTE members run the day-to-day operations of UC’s hospitals, laboratories, classrooms, museums, and more.

    • UPTE is composed of a variety of career staff who play key roles in running the UC’s medical centers, research facilities, and classrooms. Our members span IT professionals to staff researchers and doctors. 

    • The UC has unfairly excluded a number of similar staff in adjacent titles with similar areas of interest and expertise. If you are a career staff worker at UC, we are interested in learning more about you and your work. You likely have a shared community of interest with UPTE members and therefore there would be a pathway for your title to join our union!

    • When career staff bargain together, we win big. Our benefits include healthcare premium limits, protected time for training and development, career ladders and a reclassification process, layoff protections, and a premium pension that allows us to retire five years earlier than most UC workers.

    • Our wide reach over a variety of UC’s operations provide a major piece of leverage when bargaining with UC over issues affecting career workers, as demonstrated by the career benefits in our contracts.

    • With over 1,000 member leaders statewide, our democratic leadership structure allows us the flexibility to organize around specific issues on a local level while bargaining with the UC statewide, ensuring that member needs are addressed through member strength.

  • Without a union, UC has unilateral control over your benefits and protections, meaning NONE are guaranteed. With a union, workers are able to collectively bargain for their wages, benefits, and other workplace protections, giving you power and voice in your career and future.  UPTE members have won strong layoff protections, access to severance pay, caps on healthcare premiums, and a secure pension plan that guarantees they can retire five years earlier than everyone else, and by organizing with us, you can receive these benefits and have a vehicle to win more for your title.

  • Once we have support from you and your coworkers and evidence that your title  shares a community of interest with UPTE-represented members, we can submit a petition to the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). After PERB decides that your title fits into our Bargaining Unit, you immediately get the benefits of our strong collective bargaining agreement and we are able to negotiate wage scales specific for your title. What’s more, because we are member-run, you will have a say in your union’s priorities.

  • Great! The next step is to fill out the survey and sign the membership form on this page if you haven’t already. We also need to get as many of your colleagues on board as soon as possible by having one-on-one or group meetings. Email organize@upte.org to schedule a meeting with an UPTE organizer.

  • It’s a great time for workers to organize unions, and it’s exciting to see unions building up strong organizing campaigns. One of the benefits of organizing with UPTE is that we have over thirty-five years of experience building power and winning strong contracts at the University of California. Because we have such a diverse group of workers—from healthcare to research to technical—unrepresented groups have a pathway to joining our existing union and benefiting from the strong contracts that UPTE members have already won, rather than fighting from scratch to win a first contract. We also have a democratic structure with over 1,000 workplace leaders across the state, which ensures that every job title has a voice within their union.