BERKELEY — One of the largest higher-education strikes in U.S. history canceled classes, abruptly pushed instruction online and left grades in limbo at the University of California mere weeks before students are bombarded by final-project deadlines and semester exams at some of the country’s most prestigious and rigorous public universities.
Early Monday morning, more than 48,000 graduate scholars, teacher’s assistants, student researchers, sympathetic senior faculty and undergraduate supporters walked off the job on each of the university system’s 10 campuses across the state, protesting for higher living wages, better access to child care benefits and greater job security.
The work stoppage — supported by 98% of the employee union’s members — was a last-ditch attempt by student instructors, assistants, tutors and readers to pressure their employer to approve pay scale hikes that can keep up with California’s exorbitant cost of living, according to the union’s demands.
Passing by a picket line at Sproul Plaza and walking to a lecture on Monday afternoon, Jack Galloway, 19, said that while his own father was a member of a teacher’s union elsewhere in the country, the UC work stoppage leaves many students in a bind as they prepare for finals without much guidance.
“It’s just challenging,” Galloway said. “We understand these guys need to strike for a better contract, but at the same time, it’s frustrating — the whole gridlock between the university and the union. I’m definitely feeling that crunch.”
The union, United Auto Workers, has filed more than 25 charges with the Public Employment Relations Board against UC, including accusing the institution of engaging in unlawful behavior by making unilateral changes to working conditions and withholding information during negotiations.
UAW says it plans to continue the strike until an agreement is reached.
“We have been bargaining throughout the weekend and while important progress has been made, we are still far apart on many of the issues that will make UC a more equitable university,” Rafael Jaime, president of UAW 2865, said in a statement Monday morning.
At UC Berkeley, Emiko Gardiner, a 22-year-old graduate student and astrophysics instructor, echoed that sentiment: “Hopefully by having so many people show out today, they will see that we’re determined and we’re willing to stick it out.”
~4,000 workers rallying at UC Berkeley pic.twitter.com/cTxm5eFJHB
— UAW 4811 (@uaw_4811) November 14, 2022
The University of California, the third largest employer in the state, has rejected all of UAW’s claims.
“It is important to note that our graduate student employees work strictly on a part-time basis while earning their graduate or doctoral degree, and that compensation is just one of the many ways in which they are supported as students during their time with the University,” Ryan King, associate director of media relations within UC’s Office of the President, said in a statement. “At this time, we believe that the best path to an agreement is with the aid of a third-party mediator, and have proposed to the United Auto Workers enlisting the assistance of a neutral private mediator so that we can achieve a compromise.”
But scores of the 15,000 Bay Area employees repped by UAW — 9,178 at UC Berkeley’s campus, 518 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, another 2,773 members at UC San Francisco, and 2,750 workers at UC Santa Cruz — vowed to return to picket lines Tuesday.
Students shared stories at Monday’s rally and online about opting out of health care to save enough to eat, shelling out up to 50% of their paychecks to make rent, selling plasma to offset living costs and attending funerals on Zoom because they couldn’t afford plane tickets.
According to UC, many student researchers and employees who work 20 hours or less earn stipends of $23,000 to $43,000 for their part-time work, while full-time staffers get higher salaries.
UC has proposed a 7% to 10% pay increase for student and part-time workers that “would be among the top of the pay scale among the top public research universities, and more comparable to private universities such as Harvard, MIT, and USC.”
More and more scholars have flocked to efforts to unionize in recent years, motivated in part by increased costs and staggering workloads throughout the pandemic. Those financial tolls are especially evident at UC Berkeley, which has long struggled to develop enough housing for all of its students studying in a city already saddled with its own housing crisis.
Students vowed to picket until they felt UC properly responds to their concerns.
“We’ll be back every day until our demands are met and the university bargains fairly,” said Courtney Bither, a graduate student instructor and UAW union steward at UC Berkeley’s history department.
Pitching in on coverage of the stike at the University of California campuses, with @_katielauer. Thousands of student workers and researchers went on strike this morning, demanding better pay ans benefits.
Here's the scene at one picket line at UC Berkeley's Sproul Plaza. pic.twitter.com/HHqADKYNet— Jakob Rodgers (@JakobRodgers) November 14, 2022
UC Berkeley would not comment on the strike and diverted all questions to the UC systemwide office but anticipated that on-campus operations, such as shuttle service and some class instruction, would operate normally.
More than 30 California lawmakers signed a letter urging University of California President Michael Drake to “cease committing unfair labor practices as alleged, and bargain in good faith with UAW.”
“The UC is one of the top public university systems and research institutions in the world, in no small part because of its ability to attract the most talented scholars from a wide array of backgrounds,” the letter read. “But the UC system cannot live up to its mission and reputation if its own employees do not feel respected.”
Notably, neither Assembly Member Buffy Wicks nor Senator Nancy Skinner, whose districts include UC Berkeley’s campus, added their names to the plea.
Alongside Monday’s hordes of strikers, a number of UC Berkeley students simultaneously sympathized with workers’ demands and were concerned with how their studies would be negatively affected.
Still, many students missed their own classes and packed the picket lines to show support for their instructors.
“As much as our academics could be hurt, their lives will be hurt even more,” said Annabelle Cole, a 24-year-old social welfare graduate student.
