United Faculty-UAW union members showed up and showed out for a “Respect the Vote” rally at Tommy Trojan Wednesday afternoon. The rally was hosted in the wake of USC’s continuous effort to challenge the results of the June election, where 70% of non-tenure-track faculty voted in favor of a union.
UAW 872, a subsidiary of the larger United Auto Workers union, is seeking to represent 3,000 research, teaching, practitioner and clinical faculty across USC. After a nearly year-and-a-half long effort to form the union, the Los Angeles regional National Labor Relations Board decided in favor of their recognition.
After RTPC faculty voted, the university submitted a Request for Review on June 2 to the four-person NLRB board in Washington, three of which are Trump appointees that previously served as labor lawyers for corporations such as Boeing.
Janis Yue, an assistant professor of clinical occupational therapy, said the rally was a demand that USC drop their appeal to the NLRB regarding the June election results.
‘’I’m out here to demand that USC respect our vote, drop their appeal to the federal board and come to the bargaining table because they are using delay tactics to deny us of our democratic voice,” Yue said.
In a statement to Annenberg Media, the university wrote that they have asked the NLRB “to review the validity of this result as the first step toward obtaining much-needed legal clarity over these issues.”
“We are grateful to our faculty for all they do for our students and as partners in our academic mission. This election has presented important legal and substantive issues regarding our model of partnering with faculty in the shared governance of this university,” the statement wrote.
The university said there have been no updates since they filed their request in June.
For Sanjay Madhav, however, shared governance is not something he has experienced during his time as faculty at USC.
“Those of us that have worked here, we know that we don’t run the university,” said Madhav, a professor of practice in the Viterbi School of Engineering. “It’s the administration, it’s the board of trustees that run the university.”
The regional NLRB found that RTPC faculty at USC did not have managerial or supervisory status, as USC had previously argued.
Madhav and Yue both said that USC’s request was a “delay tactic” – a method to stall the majority support for unionization that RTPC faculty have shown over the past year.
After the regional NLRB directed an election, USC put out multiple statements encouraging faculty to vote in the election, posting guides on how to complete a secret ballot and commended the regional NLRB for ensuring “all eligible voters receive a ballot and are given the opportunity to vote in this important election.”
This came after USC had also, in a previous challenge to RTPC unionization, argued the NLRB was unconstitutional – an argument also advanced by Amazon and SpaceX in response to unionization efforts.
“During the election period, they constantly sent out reminders: ‘Hey, your vote matters!’,” Madhav said. “Then when it became clear that that strategy wasn’t working, their fallback was, well, let’s appeal it.”
United Faculty-UAW was joined by councilwoman Nithya Raman, a candidate for the 2026 LA Mayoral race. She said the university’s response was exemplary of them “undermining” their workforce.
“USC has an $8.8 billion endowment. I think that means they can afford to pay the workers whose tireless teaching makes this one of the finest universities in the entire country,” Raman said while speaking at the rally.
UAW 872 has also drawn support from Mayor Karen Bass, who sent an email to President Beong-Soo Kim urging him to “respect the NTT faculty vote” and withdraw the appeal to the NLRB.
Yue said she hopes the rally will put pressure on USC to both respect the 70% vote and come to the bargaining table.
“I don’t think we need more rhetoric about open dialogue. We need to actually see that in action,” Yue said.
Edited by Malik Gamble, Scott Hills, and Katherine Contreras Hernandez