UAW 4811 conducted a vote from February 5, 2026 to February 13, 2026 to authorize a strike in response to alleged unfair labor practices by the University of California. Employees in the bargaining unit include teaching associates, teaching assistants, tutors/ULAs, graders, readers, and graduate student researchers. Academic counselors, financial aid officers, admissions administrators, student services advisors, as well as grants and contracts administrators and other related titles, are also part of UAW 4811 and may participate in work stoppages or strike actions. It should be noted that a strike authorization does not mean that a strike is inevitable.

Frequently Asked Questions and Resources

Please carefully review the important resources and information below which address many common questions and issues pertaining to continuity in instruction, advising, and research, as well as guidance on timekeeping and reporting. Additional information, guidance, and answers to frequently asked questions for Instructors of Record, Principal Investigators, and other supervisors and administrators have been provided by University of California Provost Newman.

Instructional Continuity
 

  • As an ASE or GSR supervisor:
    • Review the Instructor of Record and PI Responsibilities document for a high-level overview of roles and responsibilities you should be aware of.
    • Ensure that you have up-to-date access to all course materials and grade data for your courses in Canvas.
    • If supervising a Teaching Associate, ensure you have access to the Canvas site for the Associates’ course.
    • Plan ahead. Students will expect you to be the authority on how the course will proceed. The specific actions you take will depend on different circumstances, but may include the following:
      • Notify your students of the possibility of a strike, how they could be impacted, and steps you will take in the event of a strike. Instruction should not be cancelled because of the strike.
      • Communicate clearly and frequently with students. Remind them that you will be the main point of contact during the strike, and ensure they know how to reach you. Refrain from discussing the strike itself or bargaining issues and focus instead on assisting with the logistics of helping the undergraduate students.
      • Review this document to identify strategies for maintaining course continuity.
      • Identify any aspects of the course that may be postponed, abbreviated, or omitted, and revise your lesson planning and grading rubric accordingly.  
      • Consider engaging your students in making these revisions and be transparent and reasonable with your new expectations.
      • Consider redesigning assessments, using rubrics and/or Gradescope to help with grading.
      • Ensure you have access to ASE lesson plans, student grades, graded materials, and submitted work that has not yet been graded. 
      • Download all gradebook data.
      • If grading will be delayed, ask students to maintain copies of submitted work and post timely sample solutions for them to review.
      • Within the limits of the ASE appointment letters, consider reassigning work among ASEs if some choose to work during the strike while others do not. 
  • Potentially, yes, within limits. TA duties are outlined in the work agreements completed and signed by departments/faculty and TAs at the beginning of the quarter. If TAs are willing to assist with the instructor’s strategies for maintaining course continuity, the instructor should ensure that any adjusted duties fall within the established work agreements and/or description of duties. Faculty must also be cognizant of the number of hours of the TA appointment and cannot assign work that would exceed the appointment hours outlined in the agreements.
  • Faculty have an obligation under the Academic Personnel Manual to deliver the curriculum and are responsible for ensuring continuity of instruction. While it may be necessary to make changes to courses, every effort should be made to minimize impact on students.
  • Academic Student Employees who choose to strike will not be working and will not be accessing the Canvas site for the courses in which they are employed during the period of the strike. 
  • Graduate classes and the evaluation of graduate student academic progress for grades and credit should continue as normal. Graduate students are students regardless of their employment status with the university and should continue to participate in academic study activities during the strike. 

Advising Continuity
 

  • In the event of a work stoppage, the Office of Financial aid may be operating at a limited capacity. While response times for students and staff may be delayed, we remain committed to providing excellent customer service.
    • Undergraduate Students
    • Graduate Students
    • Prospective Students 
    • Parents (Current and Prospective)

For frequently asked questions visit our website: https://www.finaid.ucsb.edu/faq
If you wish to speak with someone in our office, please log in to the Virtual Service Center. The next available representative will assist you with your inquiry: I have a question 

  • For staff inquiries regarding:
    • Student awards
    • Stipends
    • Scholarships
    • Student prizes
    • Non-payroll student payments

  • Log in to the Virtual Service Center: I have a question

For Undergraduate Resource Reporting (UGRR) Portal Inquiries:
To review awards:

  1. Log in to the UGRR Portal.
  2. Review active awards and account strings under the “Resource Title (Account String)” section.

Q: I don’t see all of my awards in the portal. What should I do?
A: Only fully mapped and verified awards are currently reflected in the UGRR system. If you are expecting an award that does not appear, please contact sa-finaidresource@ucsb.edu.

Q: I need to set up a new award or modify an existing award. What should I do?
A: Please submit a request to establish a new award or modify an existing award.

Research Continuity
 

  • Review the Instructor of Record and PI Responsibilities document for a high-level overview of roles and responsibilities you should be aware of.
  • Principal Investigators should develop or modify existing research continuity plans to cover labs, including ensuring lab safety, and securing and maintaining research materials and data.  Be prepared to implement continuity plans as needed.  It is not necessary to ask union members if they intend to work in order to develop such plans. Continuity plans are useful laboratory resources in case of emergencies and other disruptions.

    Steps you can take to ensure continuity of critical research activities:
    • Identify workflows and procedures that require personnel attention (e.g., animal studies, chemical safety, maintenance of longitudinal experiments, shipping and receiving, etc.).
    • Assess and prioritize critical laboratory activities.  
    • Identify any research and lab activities that can be ramped down, curtailed, or delayed. Document steps required to place these activities in safe shutdown mode.
    • Identify personnel able to safely perform essential activities.
      • Ensure personnel have the appropriate training and understand whom to contact with questions.
      • Document critical step-by-step instructions.
      • Coordinate across labs and teams with similar research activities to identify ways to ensure coverage of critical activities.
    • Communicate significant planned absences and/or lab closures to your Laboratory Safety Representatives and key administrative units.
  • Research support staff (e.g., grants and contracts, sponsored projects, administration, policy and compliance analyst functions) may also engage in this strike. The Office of Research and Provost’s Office are jointly establishing a response team to ensure the continuity of critical administrative and compliance infrastructure. It is advised to plan ahead for upcoming grant deadlines and deliverables since routine central office and departmental timelines may be impacted.  
  • Students enrolled in courses, independent study, directed research credits, or otherwise, should continue to do the activities associated with those courses and be graded in response to their academic progress regardless of employment or strike participation.  Faculty may still communicate with striking students regarding academic activities.
  • Graduate students receive directed research credit (up to 12 units of 598/599 credit per quarter) for research performed independently in furtherance of their degree or educational goals.  Assessment and grading is a faculty prerogative and can only be based on academic criteria associated with the achievement of course objectives or goals that are consistently applied to all students. It is appropriate to assign a non-passing grade if the student fails to meet those goals.
  • Consider the possibility that progress on research projects may be delayed.  
  • While it is not permissible to ask a represented employee if they will be striking, it is appropriate for supervisors to remind researchers to leave ongoing work in a state that preserves safety and experimental/data progress if they will be absent from the laboratory.  

Permissible Actions

  • Do think ahead about ensuring research continuity. 

  • Do collect up-to-date information on any ongoing research work.

  • Do consider what duties can be put on hold and whether essential duties may need to be reassigned.

  • Do plan for the careful preservation of experimental materials and the like.

  • Do review timesheets before approval to ensure information reported is accurate.

  • Do promptly report threats to safety and security, violence, or other misconduct or dangerous circumstances (find campus contacts here).

  • Do plan ahead for proposal deadlines that may occur during this time period.  

Direct questions to:

Impermissible Actions to Avoid

  • Do not photograph, video, or “monitor” employees’ striking activity for reasons unrelated to ensuring safety, security, and access.  This includes refraining from monitoring or perusing employees’ social media.

  • Do not make statements to employees intended to elicit a response concerning their union activity or union sympathies.

  • Do not ask employees about their protected activities, their union sympathies or the protected activities/union sympathies of others. Protected activity includes strikes and protests concerning terms and conditions of employment or bargaining.

  • Do not discipline, discharge, reprimand, or otherwise take adverse action against employees for engaging in strike activity without consulting Labor Relations, Academic Personnel, or Graduate Division.

Direct questions to your MSOs and Assistant Deans. If additional questions emerge:

Timekeeping/Reporting Guidance

Striking employees do not have the right to be paid for work not performed, and supervisors have a fiscal responsibility to accurately track and report employees’ time worked. Principal investigators also have financial responsibility for any grants or contracts they administer, including ensuring the accuracy of wages charged to sponsored agreements. It is therefore critical that instructors of record and PIs have a plan for confirming and tracking work performed by their graduate student employees.
 

  • All Academic Student Employees, Graduate Student Researchers, Post Doctoral Scholars, and Academic Researchers are required to submit a timesheet every month using the UCSB Timekeeping System. This includes accurately reporting leave without pay, other approved leaves, or that no leave was taken. Even if student employees do not take any leave during the month, they must still submit acknowledgement that they have no absences to report.  This is a continuing obligation separate and independent from labor unrest. For additional information on timekeeping and using the campus timekeeping system, please refer to the detailed guidance Timekeeping Resources on the AP Website.​
  • If you know that the employee has entered false information on their timesheet, you should not approve it.  You should return it to the employee and ask them to correct it to reflect their actual work performed.
  • No, unless you have previously approved vacation requests for this period. No new vacation requests should be approved for workers who choose to withhold their labor. Those who choose not to work should record their time off as leave without pay as appropriate for the specific employee type.

Systemwide and Campus Communications  

UCOP Communications

 

Systemwide Senate Communications

 

UCSB Communications