To UCSC Administrators, UC Office of the President, and UC Regents,
We are one week into our wildcat strike for a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA). In the last week graduate students have joined together to say that we can’t take it anymore! We’ve received support from faculty (some of whom are bcc-ed here), lecturers, staff, undergraduate students, and the broader academic and labor community. The letters of solidarity keep flowing in! Given that a COLA would benefit our entire campus, it’s unclear why you are fighting against us and not with us.
Unsurprisingly, UCSC administration has responded to our strike with intimidation and threats of retaliation. Wildcat strikes have always elicited these kinds of ripostes from management. Graduate students and their supporters have remained steadfast in the face of these warnings, and we have no intention of backing down. Here, we want to offer a few direct replies to the administration’s argument that they cannot meet with us to discuss a COLA – an argument that is essentially an evasion.
On December 10th, we, as members of the graduate student body, as student workers, and as officers of the Graduate Student Association requested a meeting that you did not attend. You notified us 48 minutes after the beginning of the meeting that you were refusing to meet with us. We were, and are, working to fulfill our roles as GSA officers and serve “as prime point of contact” with the campus administration. We expected you to abide by the student handbook rules which clearly state that “the governance process should provide a forum for candid discussion.” While our demand for COLA is broader, we want to call attention to a precedent for supplementing grad student salaries outside union bargaining within the UC system: UCSF’s COLS. Nothing prevents you from meeting us, the elected representatives of the graduate students, to discuss COLA.
We also know that you can meet with the UAW 2865. As per our contract (Article 34 B), while you don’t have a duty to meet and confer, you are certainly not prohibited from doing so. We understand your refusal to meet as voluntary and we advise against it. We have persistently explored what you refer to as “proper” channels of addressing graduate students’ cost of living and have been met with utterly inadequate responses and inaction on the part of the administration. It’s in your best interest to address our demands for a COLA swiftly and comprehensively. We are not the only exploited workers and students on this campus and people are waking up to our collective power!
Moreover, you have persistently refused to meet with us on the grounds that this is an “illegal work stoppage” and claim that you are unable to negotiate the terms and conditions of graduate student workers’ employment while we are under contract. Again, the legality of wildcat strikes is up for dispute; but more importantly, the administration is also neglecting a relevant domain of labor law that is often used to settle wildcat strikes: side letters. Side letters are binding agreements that augment an existing, primary collective bargaining agreement (for instance, the 2018-2022 contract between UAW 2865 and the UC). Side letters can deal with issues that are not included or covered in the original collective bargaining agreement – such as the cost of living for a “local” campus – and are commonly used to resolve the grievances raised in wildcat strikes. While this mechanism exists for modifying the CBA, the UCSC administration has stubbornly hidden behind “employment law” to avoid meeting with graduate students.
A cost of living adjustment would substantially improve our campus and we know you’ll look back on the moment we received a COLA fondly, as a shining example of the power of student protest. After all, we are the original authority on questioning authority and actions speak louder than words. When prospective students come on our campus next quarter, it’s in all of our best interests to ensure that they know our campus cares about graduate students.
We are graduate students who have been recruited here to advance knowledge. This university cannot run without our valuable waged and unwaged labor. We are precarious, but we are indispensable. The solutions you have offered thus far, like access to CalFresh and food pantries, are insufficient and will not cut it any longer. We need a COLA and we need it now!
We look forward to hearing your first offer.
Signed,
UAW 2865, Santa Cruz
Graduate Student Association Executive Board