Dear Admin,
Six weeks ago, hundreds of graduate students withheld 12,000 grades, affecting over half of the undergraduate population. Since then, we have seen attempts by campus administration to minimize the perceived impact of our action. We have seen efforts to use legal technicalities to cover up an unwillingness to negotiate, pointing to the statewide UAW as a potential obstacle to a settlement. Additionally, we have seen naked threats directed at striking graduate students. Clearly, you are under the impression that through this combination of obfuscation and intimidation, the momentum behind our strike will dissipate. We are writing to let you know that you are wrong.
At a general assembly on January 9, 225 graduate students voted overwhelmingly in favor of a series of escalations in Winter-quarter. We then put out a strike authorization poll to assess our collective power among the broader graduate student body. This poll, put to all graduate students, received 859 responses—456 of which came from Winter-quarter TAs and GSIs.
Out of the 456 Winter-quarter TAs and GSIs who responded,
- 365 (80%) have committed to participating in a sick-out strike on January 22, 2020.
- 351 (77%) have committed to withholding final Winter-quarter grades.
It is also worth noting that there is strong support for the strike among GSRs and those on fellowship.
It is clear that the Fall 2019 grading strike was only the beginning of our campaign to win a COLA. With the above commitments alone, participation rates in the planned Winter 2020 actions will exceed Fall 2019 numbers by 100 graduate students, and our ranks will only grow.
As far as your attempt to paint the UAW as an obstacle to settlement, this week we also saw our statewide union step in and formally request to bargain over this matter. In that letter, sent from our statewide president to UCOP head of Labor Relations Peter Chester, our union president makes explicit reference to Jennifer Schiffner’s correspondence with our campus unit chair, Veronica Hamilton. Far from threatening an unfair labor practice charge for unlawful direct dealing (Lori Kletzer’s premiere reason for not meeting with us), our union endorses the idea that the university must address the cost of living issue.
Given these developments, what should you do?
You should sit down and negotiate a COLA with UCSC strikers.
We understand that you must be under tremendous pressure from UCOP. We know that the largest employer in the state of California certainly does not want you to set this precedent. However, that does not mean that you cannot negotiate or that you are legally forbidden from meeting with us.
It is time for UC administration to stop pretending like there are technicalities preventing us from reaching a resolution. It is time for you to address us directly rather than through our department chairs. As we have stated in previous correspondence, you can even email an offer to all graduate students.
We are prepared to escalate our campaign until the University officially offers a COLA to all graduate students. UAW 2865 is amenable to bargaining over COLA, and any official UAW 2865 bargaining team will be Santa Cruz led. If you are worried about your own superiors at UCOP, it is time for you to call them. If the University is serious about avoiding further disruptions, it is best that you drop the bad faith claims that negotiations are impossible and come to the table.
Signed,
Graduate Student Association
UAW 2865, Santa Cruz
Striking Graduate Students