Why $54K – pay us more ucsc

We are demanding a cost of living adjustment to bring every graduate student’s gross annual income to a minimum of $54,000 – regardless of residence, visa, documentation, employment, or funding status – to bring us out of rent burden. For more information on how this number was calculated, see the UCSC Graduate Cost of Attendance and Living Calculator.

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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. Then, in 2024, we went on strike for Divestment, Disclosure, Transitional funding for researchers, & Amnesty for all protestors. Now, we’re fighting against the attacks on higher education taking place on a national scale as we build a campaign for a UC that works for all of us.