Please use this form to sign on you, or your organization as an endorser of CAPS' Avoid Collapse Platform contract demands. 

Indicate you or your organization’s primary contact to receive CAPS updates on campaign developments.

Here's what the letter says: 

"I write on behalf of the nearly 5,000 State Scientists in the California Civil Service, represented by the California Association of Professional Scientists (CAPS), to ask for your support by directing your representatives to negotiate in good faith to reach a new contract that provides the competitive salaries and benefits necessary to ensure that California can recruit and retain scientists to continue successfully protecting public health, the environment, and California’s natural resources.

CAPS State Scientists protect the public from life-threatening diseases, safeguard our wildlife and abundant natural resources, ensure the safety of our food, and protect our air and water from toxic waste pollution. Yet California’s experienced State Scientists are creeping ever closer to retirement age, as a whole, and their current salaries help tip the scales toward encouraging experienced scientists to seek employment at the local, county, or federal level, or in the private sector. What’s more is current retention data, produced by the State, suggests that new scientists leave within 5 years. Science takes time – 5 years is the minimum retention rate for scientists to become experts in their programs. This will hurt California, as the projects and polices that are overseen by State Scientists are unable to keep up with the turnover rate.

CAPS is comprised of highly trained scientists in a variety of disciplines — made up of Biologists, Chemists, Epidemiologists, Toxicologists, Research Scientists, and many more. Without competitive compensation packages for these scientific experts, California will no longer hold the leading edge, and our public will suffer for the dearth of scientific expertise.

Please consider concrete ways to address the salary disparities that exist for these State Scientists. Thank you for your time. Please do not hesitate to contact the CAPS headquarters at (916) 441-2629 or email caps@capsscientists.org."