SEIU 1021 members at the Cal Academy of Sciences—Cal Academy Workers United (CAWU)—are used to fighting management. They fought an anti-union campaign led by Academy Executive Director Scott Sampson and his senior leadership team as they organized their union. In 2023, they won by a landslide. It took two years of fighting, including many solidarity breaks, delivering an oversize petition to Sampson and the board of directors, and a huge public action involving sidewalk murals at the Academy’s 172nd birthday extravaganza, to win their first union contract, which made big improvements. Then they had to fight back against layoffs in 2024. 

When Scott Sampson announced yet another round of layoffs in April, CAWU sprang into action right away. They demanded that management “chop from the top”—while Sampson and his team claimed that they had “exhausted all options” other than layoffs, they also admitted that they had not considered cutting executive pay. Sampson was paid $885,000 last year, with a $125,000 bonus despite the Academy’s dire financial crisis. 

They organized highly visible solidarity breaks, spoke with the media about their demands, and circulated a petition that called for a vote of no confidence in Sampson, as well as for the layoffs to be rescinded and for a ban on AI and other wasteful spending meant to replace the work of CAWU members.

Last week, they won a huge victory when Scott Sampson abruptly announced his resignation.

“We believe this was the correct first step in order to restore an Academy leadership structure which puts the people who enact the Academy’s mission first,” said CAWU President Teddy Vollman, who is on the layoff list. ”We look forward to working with a new team which will collaborate with us to find alternatives to layoffs and preserve this beloved San Francisco institution.”

Though seeing Sampson out the door is a big triumph after years of fighting him not only to protect their jobs and their rights but also the mission of the Academy, their work to fight the layoffs currently on the table is just beginning. They are still at the bargaining table over impacts, and workers on the layoff list are still reporting for work. They are still organizing visibility actions and a community petition.

“We’ve done the math and have determined that Sampson’s salary alone could fund 11 of the positions on the layoff list,” said Vollman. “We know that there are alternatives to layoffs. Cutting the programs and staff that make the Academy the beloved institution it has been for nearly two centuries is not a way forward. We will keep fighting to keep our jobs but also to keep the Academy true to its mission to regenerate the natural world through science, learning, and collaboration.”