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Newsmaker 2020 | UC Santa Cruz graduate instructors strike for livable wage - Santa Cruz Sentinel

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SANTA CRUZ – The fight for affordable housing has been a frontlines battle in Santa Cruz and it spread to UC Santa Cruz as graduate students staged a strike to demand a livable wage.

Graduate students who also serve as teacher assistants at UCSC began a grading strike in early December 2019, in order to put pressure on the university to increase their wages. Graduate teacher assistants asked for a $1,412 increase to the $2,434 a month salary they already hold in order to be able to afford the cost of living in Santa Cruz.

Santa Cruz is located in one of the most expensive regions to live in throughout the U.S. Graduate student instructors reported spending anywhere from 50% and 70% of their wages on their rent. Film and media doctoral student, Ryan Page, plans to finish his dissertation elsewhere because he can’t afford to live in Santa Cruz any longer he told the Sentinel in February.

As part of the strike, graduate assistants withheld nearly 20% of undergraduate grades for the Fall 2019 quarter. Final grades were due on Dec.18 and the holdout began on Dec. 8.

When demands weren’t met, the refusal to submit final grades escalated to a teaching strike. Beginning Feb. 10, demonstrators congregated and blocked both entrances to campus, effectively shutting it off from outside traffic.

The demonstrators were supported and joined by faculty and undergraduate students.

The main entrance to UC Santa Cruz was again blocked by students supporting the wildcat grad student strike Thursday. A graduate student workers labor union and the UC system both filed unfair labor practice complaints related to the strike against each other this week.(Dan Coyro — Santa Cruz Sentinel)
Hundreds of UC Santa Cruz students and supporters Thursday return to the main entrance to the UCSC campus to strike and demand higher living wages. (Dan Coyro — Santa Cruz Sentinel)

“I’m here to support the students who are central to our university,” Literature Professor Vilashini Cooppan told the Sentinel in February. “When they can’t support themselves, they cannot do their work as students, they cannot do their work as teachers and all of our community suffers.”

UCSC graduate students also garnered support from other students across the UC system. Smaller demonstrations reportedly popped up at UC Santa Barbara, UC-Berkeley and UCLA.

However, the strike was not officially backed by the union that supports graduate students, the United Automobile Workers local 2865, making the movement a wildcat strike. Due to the nature of the assembly, an official count was difficult to determine, but an estimated 750 UCSC teaching assistants and graduate student instructors participated.

UAW 2865 could not legally back the students as it was currently still in a contract it had negotiated between students in the university in 2018. The contract was set to expire in 2022 and didn’t include a strike clause.

Despite a lack of support from their union, demonstrators waged on. They even clashed with local law enforcement on the third day of the strike.

At least 17 demonstrators were arrested for unlawful assembly, obstructing a public roadway and disobeying a lawful order. At least two students sustained injuries during the clash that they said was the result of excessive force from the police officers present.

“Officers repeatedly tried to de-escalate the situation and made clear that blocking this major roadway had to stop or it would lead to arrest,” Hernandez-Jason said in a statement that day. “Demonstrators locked arms, sat in the roadway, and refused to move back onto the university field.”

The arrests of the 17 students resulted in their 14-day bans from campus. Students who lived on campus were allowed to travel to their residence and dining halls but were not permitted access to any other campus facilities until Feb. 27.

Demonstrations from UC graduate students gained national attention. The strike was reported by the New York Times and even drew support from Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders on Twitter.

Despite punitive measures, demonstrators continued to fight for their demands, even as punishment began to worsen. UC President Janet Napolitano threatened the termination of any graduate student instructor if grades were not submitted.

“Holding undergraduate grades hostage and refusing to carry out contracted teaching responsibilities is the wrong way to go,” Napolitano said in her letter to faculty and students. “Therefore, participation in the wildcat strike will have consequences, up to and including the terminations of existing employment at the University.”

Graduate instructors were given an 11:59 p.m. deadline on Feb.21 to submit final grades. However, threats of termination did not ease tensions. Instead, they poured gas on the flames and inspired demonstrators to show up in bigger numbers.

“People are outraged, I’d say generally,” Will Parrish, a history of consciousness graduate student said in February. “I think that a lot of people feel determined to continue and withstand these attempts to break the strike before we get what we need, which is a cost-of-living-adjustment.”

The deadline came and went, and further punitive action didn’t come. On Feb. 28, punishment finally fell as 74 UCSC graduate instructors were fired or barred from leading spring courses. The university cited the abandonment of job responsibilities and insubordination as its cause for action.

“We are sick, we are tired — and now we are fired,” Natalie Ng said. “But we won’t give up. We won’t stop striking until we get a COLA.”

COLA is the acronym for the cost-of-living adjustment they demanded from the university.

Shortly after the termination of the 74 graduate student instructors, the pandemic began. However, demonstrators did not let it slow them down and they moved their efforts online.

After another five months of continued demonstration, the strike came to an end. The university and UAW 2865 had both gone after each other for unfair labor practices. UAW 2865 agreed to drop its charges if the university reinstated the graduate students as instructors.

On Aug. 7, UCSC reinstated 41 of the graduate students who were fired due to their participation in the wildcat strike. However, the students did not receive the pay increase they originally fought for.

“In large part, this is a win for Santa Cruz workers — for workers in general,” said Veronica Hamilton, the UAW 2865 unit chair and a UC graduate student that was fired. “Some of our most brilliant scholars are able to return and that’s excellent.”

The university stood behind the reasoning for its actions throughout the process.

“There is no debate that those who were terminated violated their contract by withholding grades,” it stated in August. “These terminations were not unfair or unexpected as ample notice was provided and opportunities to submit grades were offered right up to the deadline — a deadline long after grades were due.”

After being reinstated as graduate student instructors, the UC students had to adjust and learn to teach in an online environment for the fall quarter, something they did not have the opportunity to do with staff members throughout the spring quarter.

“The course is going to be online, as most courses at UCSC and across the country are,” Hamilton said. “So, I’ll be learning how to teach online just like everybody else did in the spring quarter.”

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