CalArts and CU-UAW met on April 15, 2026, for the first session of bargaining for the Staff Unit.
CalArts prepared counter articles to Performance Reviews, Discipline and Dismissal, and Grievance and Arbitration. Performance Reviews is primarily focused on establishing best practices for conducting performance reviews and ensures areas of performance are properly documented. Discipline and Dismissal addresses the principles of progressive discipline and establishes guidelines and procedures for issuing warnings and notices. Grievance and Arbitration establishes a procedure in which a bargaining unit employee can grieve a dispute over the interpretation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
In addition, CalArts exchanged two new articles including Staff Layoffs and Probationary Period. The Layoff article is primarily to set the parameters for severance pay and impact in the situation of a layoff. The Probation article provides for a timeframe in which a new employee is considered “probationary” such that ample time is allowed to assess performance. These articles typically are those that work in conjunction with the articles covered in the above paragraph.
CU-UAW prepared counters to the Layoff and Probation articles presented for CalArts to consider.
Lastly, CalArts and CU-UAW also engaged in a fruitful discussion over the principles of Academic and Artistic Freedom as it relates to staff along with Intellectual Property (IP) in order to best prepare a counter to previous CU-UAW proposals. CalArts explained that, per AAUP (American Association of University Professors) Academic and Artistic Freedom belong to faculty and researchers, not staff, as is the case in higher education. For Intellectual Property, CalArts further explained that CalArts has no business in IP a staff creates outside of their work and not using the employer’s work materials, as is captured in the California Labor Code. Otherwise, as per the Labor Code, the employer owns the IP created within a staff member’s course and scope of employment and using substantial employer resources. CU-UAW seemed to understand and stated that they may turn the IP article into an AI article instead.