Edhat Staff
By the edhat staff
Academic workers across all University of California (UC) campuses have been on strike this week seeking higher wages and better benefits.
An estimated 48,000 teaching assistants, researchers, and educators from all ten UC campuses began protesting on Monday, including UC Santa Barbara (UCSB).
The union workers, which includes teaching assistants, student researchers, graduate student instructors, tutors and readers, are represented under the United Auto Workers union. The strike began after nearly 18 months of failed contract negotiations with teaching assistants and is considered the largest strike in higher education history.
The workers state they do not earn enough to live in California and are seeking a minimum annual salary of $54,000 for all graduate students, a minimum salary of $70,000 for all postdocs and annual cost-of-living adjustments. Many graduate students earn $20,000 a year or just above, and postdocs earn a minimum of $55,631. The union has also requested $2,000 a month in child-care reimbursements, expanded paid parental leave and public transit passes for its members.
The union also accuses UC of not bargaining in good faith with the United Auto Workers (UAW). “At every turn, the university has sought to act unlawfully at the bargaining table, which is preventing us from reaching an agreement,” said Neal Sweeney, the president of UAW Local 5810.
UC is accused of illegally making changes to pay and transit benefits without consulting the union, refusing to provide necessary information about who is in the bargaining unit, and obstructing the bargaining process.
University officials denied allegations that their negotiators have broken the law during bargaining. Spokesperson for the UC system Ryan King said school administrators have listened to the unions’ priorities, provided fair responses and shown a willingness to compromise.
“Our primary goal in these negotiations is achieving multiyear agreements that recognize these employees’ important and highly valued contributions to the University’s teaching and research mission with fair pay, quality health and family-friendly benefits, and a supportive and respectful work environment,” King said in a statement.
The UC has offered salary increases ranging from 4-7% in the first year with smaller subsequent raises. The union rejected the offer stating its too low as many teaching assistants would earn less than $30,000 per year.
Thursday, November 17, is the fourth day of the strike on UC Santa Barbara’s campus and so far the majority of students and faculty have joined in as a show of unity. On Wednesday the California Labor Federation called for the cancellation of all events and meetings on UC campuses until the strike is over.
Day 3 of the ULP strike for a #FairUCNow on the Santa Barbara campus! #UCSB #UAW2865 #SRUUAW #UAW5810 pic.twitter.com/CQiKHgHRiP
— UC Student-Workers Union UAW 2865 (@uaw2865) November 16, 2022
The Regents and Professors are The Elite… These are the people who are “The New Democrats”.
Because Repubs are soooo great with money? Yeah ok. Stop making everything partisan coastie. The majority of Americans can agree that outrageous CEO salaries need to go, especially in the nonprofit, educational and government sectors.
Let’s be honest here, the UC system is extremely partisan! The vast majority of the professors and staff, well over 90%, are registered democrats. The small minority who do not subscribe to left wing ideology mostly keeps it to themselves due to fear of stigmatization and outright discrimination. The UC system has no tolerance for nonconforming thought. It has increasingly focused on left wing social and political ideology at the expense of its original mission to provide a quality education to help young people become productive members of their communities.
COAST – once again, dragging in politics for no reason and going off topic. Are Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, etc etc etc…. not “elite?”
VOICE – first of all CHIP didn’t bring it up, COAST did. Second, stop crying about the liberal lean of a local news site in one of the most liberal towns in the state. How many crying liberals do you see over there on Parler? Just… ugh… enough man.
All three were Democrats’ not to long ago….
Kinda like R.R.
lol ok man….
But…. since you can’t help yourself from answering for and speaking for others (while simultaneously ignoring direct questions to yourself), go ahead and answer for COAST. Are Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, etc etc etc…. not “elite?”
4:01 – Given that cons have denigrated education and promoted ignorance for decades, you find it to be concerning that most smart people are liberal?
5:27 PM – That comment used English words, sort of, though assembled ungrammatically. It’s just more evidence of the education/politics correlation.
Facts are uncomfortable aren’t they?
I have always considered M. Mc.(Yertle the Turtle) to be a Dem.and a traitor to this country ,and he seem to keep proving me correct.
I don’t care one way or the other, I just hate liars and hypocrites on either side which is why I don’t subscribe to eithers philosophy.
Chip is exactly on point. Public sector unions are necessarily corrupt. Especially in Education. With most Democrats in the teachers union supporting Democrat politicians you have a conflict of interest. So get this: we pay huge salaries to professors who never step inside the classroom, the class is conducted by a grad student reading lecture notes and yet another student does grading by an answer guide – both paid by the University??? If they’re doing the Professor’s work why aren’t they paid by the Professor? Its a scam that increases the cost of college.
Like any tax payer supported government run organization you will see bloated spending and mismanagement. But then again do not hate the player hate the game. These administrators are just taking advantage of the system that has no fiscal accountability. Pass the costs to the students or the tax payers. All Covid did was give these sloths a longer leash to spread their incompetence. I am all for paying STEM related profs more money – but there needs to be a cap on all of the liberal art studies BS that is required to get a degree. We are just subsidizing non-value added “education” that serves no purpose. I would rather have one highly trained doctor than 10,000 highly educated students with degrees in sociology.
It’s just a bureaucracy run amok. I think that’s the point Coast is trying to make.
We shouldn’t anyone fool us into talking about this like it’s anything related to the right v. the left, when there’s not an ounce of right-wing influence with in this system at any place. Most of us “against” the current status quo are democrats (like me) opposing another group of democrats (the apparatchiks who run the UCs) in the interest of another group of democrats (the grad students and post-docs getting shafted).
Folks protecting their cozy positions will use whatever ideology or rhetoric is laying around to do so. .. in this case it’s the established powers high up in the UC system. They’ll end up cutting a deal… but if you’re waiting around for the “execs” mentioned above to take a haircut, don’t hold your breath.
Best of success to the strikers. UC has become top-heavy and bloated with directors and leaders who cater first to big money corporations, second to high paying out of state and foreign students, and thirdly to famous/celebrity faculty that they overpay and excuse from actual educational roles. As a California resident for decades I recall when the idea of the UC was to provide free quality education to everyone in the state. Get back to that and start by paying reasonable salaries to good teachers .
The UC system was originally created to provide an education at no cost to students. The UC system did not start charging tuition until the 1970s, and tuition was relatively inexpensive until more recent decades when it began to spiral out of control. Although the very low cost education the UC system used to offer was available to everyone, the vast majority of students taking advantage of this “free” government service were traditionally from upper middle class and wealthier families. Kind of an interesting government subsidy to provide primarily to well to do families. Today the UC system has become so ridiculously expensive that it’s really more of a financial trap. Young and unsuspecting students are lured into debt in exchange for an education of dramatically diminished value. The sad result is young people are financially hobbled and slowed down for four years or more in the development of their careers.
Those without education seem to have found fast-track careers as republican candidates.
Go back to sports being intramural not young people admitted & subsidized at the university expense as farm teams for pro sports. Require potential players to qualify first as students by the same rules as others seeking admission. Then their education will support them if they don’t ‘make the big time’, age out or get hurt. Most college players don’t make it on pro teams, and many end up with no marketable skills and lose years believing they will.
Very well said!
“many end up with no marketable skills and lose years believing they will.” – Not true at all. They end up with a college degree, just like any other student. Additionally, sports, especially at the college level, provides many skills that regular students will lack much experience in after 4 years: leadership, teamwork, strategizing, intense discipline, etc.
I used to be the same and think all athletes are just dumb meatheads with no other skills, until I lived and worked with many over the decades at all levels, including professional. It’s not “Revenge of the Nerds” or some other stereotypical 80s movie – these athletes work harder than anyone I’ve ever seen. Most are highly intelligent, all are dedicate, disciplined and hardworking. Give the whole “dumb jocks” thing a rest. It’s just not true.
Sacjon, your analysis of what the corruption of college athletics has wrought is either very dated or naive. These athletes are a product that is produced from “academies” and private schools who find and pamper talent. They are then bought at auction (or hired in bidding wars if you prefer) by universities that have big money from media athletic advertising and fans (typically not themselves otherwise associated with the university). The employee is then free to garner “Name Image Likeness” payments from the friends of the team who want to keep that employee on the team. If the employee is unhappy s/he can “enter the transfer portal” which allows other universities to bid for the player in the next year. Players can transfer in and out for years, some extend their “academic” experience to 6+ years with “red shirt” and other extensions. They are not required to graduate, by the way and a good many do not do so despite being given special courses, tutors and schedules that accommodate their employment on the team. UCLA and USC are abandoning a hundred year history of competing with west coast teams in order to get more money by joining the BIG12, to heck with tradition and loyalty. This will mean teams in LA will be flying to Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and such for their weekly games. How can you really be a student under such circumstances. So yes, it would be nice and appropriate if universities went back to low key athletic efforts, if not intramural, at least local contestants with real students as players.
RHS – I stopped reading at “analysis of what the corruption of college athletics has wrought,” as that was neither what I intended to discuss, nor what I was actually commenting about. You’re adding words and intentions to my comment that don’t exist. We all know you dislike college athletics, I’ve seen you rant about them before, usually without much knowledge or awareness of what student athletes go through.
I was simply, and solely, mentioning that not all college athletes are wasting their time in college. They not only gain a degree, but the valuable and marketable skills (despite what LUVADUCK claims) that come with competition and team work at that level in sports.
You can respond to that and I’ll read it.
Here, since you now insist on being part of the discussion. Here is the ONLY thing I commented on:
“Most college players don’t make it on pro teams, and many end up with no marketable skills and lose years believing they will.”
If you and RHS are unable to analyze my comment based on the specific sentence I quoted, that’s not my fault. Brush up on your logic and reasoning skills. Or, did you, as LUVA claims, waste your college years battling to be captain of your badminton squad?