December 20th – Presidential Correspondence – HR: UAW 2865, Santa Cruz — Graduate Student Association Executive Board

From: Peter Chester <Peter.Chester@ucop.edu>
Date: Fri, Dec 20, 2019 at 12:27 PM
Subject: RE: Presidential Correspondence – HR: UAW 2865, Santa Cruz — Graduate Student Association Executive Board – FW: We demand a meeting
To: Veronica Hamilton
Cc: Dianna Henderson <Dianna.Henderson@ucop.edu>, Arthur Barker <Arthur.Barker@ucop.edu>, Jennifer Schiffner <jschiffn@ucsc.edu>

Dear Ms. Hamilton:

On behalf of President Napolitano I am responding to your email requesting a meeting to discuss to discuss the UAW local’s demand for what has been described as a “Cost of Living Adjustment.” We have been advised by the Santa Cruz campus that the UAW 2865 local office had encouraged student academic employees to withhold grades in order to pressure the campus to meet their demands. Consistent with the communications we have seen from campus leadership, the Office of the President expects student academic employees to carry out all of their instructional responsibilities which are of great importance to undergrads at UCSC. Following the cessation of the grade strike, if there are any meetings to discuss the graduate students’ concerns regarding living costs they should be convened locally.

Sincerely,

Peter M. Chester

Executive Director, UCOP-Labor Relations

(office) 510-987-9919

(cell) 510-812-1627

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Mission

We are TAs, GSIs, Tutors, Readers, Student Researchers, Fellows, Postdocs, and Academic Researchers at UCSC. We are represented by our union, UAW 4811 (Formerly UAW 2865 and UAW 5810). In 2019/2020, workers at UCSC withheld labor for a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA), and in 2022, our statewide union struck for 6 weeks over a COLA, arguing for a 54k base wage for all academic workers with the goal of raising the living conditions of academic workers across the state. Now, we are on strike for Divestment, Disclosure, Transitional funding for researchers, & Amnesty for all protestors.