Category: Uncategorized

From Joe Klein
March 2, 2020

Dear Colleagues, 

I wanted to write again with some updates from the ongoing strike. 
For the 15th day, hundreds of graduate students, undergraduates, faculty, staff, lecturers, and others rallied at the base of campus–today wearing red for ed in honor of the striking educators who have come before us–most recently in LA, West Virginia, and Oklahoma. For the 15th consecutive working day, metro bus drivers refused to cross the picket line in solidarity with striking graduate students. Energy was incredibly high all morning as strikers marched on the picket line and rallied for a press conference where fired graduate students spoke out and told their stories–about being denied their livelihood while living with the threat of deportation, chronic illnesses and disabilities, and with families to support and care for. Directly after the press conference, faculty marched down Coolidge to the main entrance of campus, and together with strikers peacefully closed down the main entrance to campus, which remained closed for the entire working day. Meanwhile, major strike actions happened across the state, wearing red in solidarity with UCSC, including a “Big Ass Rally” at UC Davis, a Red4Ed march and rally at UCSD, and a massive march and rally at UC Santa Barbara, while UC Irvine held a sickout strike and rally, UCR rallied and held a general assembly, and UCLA held a major march and general assembly to move toward further escalation. The strike is spreading to all 10 campuses. 

As of today, UCSC has now spent approximately $4.5 million on the police presence at the picket line. Meanwhile university administration remains silent–and so the strike continues!

In a stunning development, our statewide union UAW 2865 has filed additional unfair labor practice (ULP) charges against the University of California due to the firing of UCSC graduate students, and is convening a bargaining team to discuss a vote to authorize an ULP strike. This would mean that all UAW 2865 workers at all 10 campuses would be legally protected to escalate to a full teaching strike in protest of the university’s egregious escalations. Click here to read the full UAW 2865 statement. The union explained its commitment: 

“Why are we digging in on this? Because we’re facing a crisis in higher ed – about who gets to participate when few can afford it, about gender equity and sexual harassment, about chronic under funding from our political leaders & about fair pay.”

In more exciting news from the picket, in the afternoon strikers gathered to welcome hip hop artist, writer, and activist Mike Africa Jr. to the picket line all the way from Philadelphia. While waiting for Mike to arrive, UCSC students read poetry written by Mumia Abu-Jamal, author, radical activist, inmate, and PhD student in History of Consciousness. Mike Africa Jr. spoke to a huge crowd of students about the power of solidarity and radical struggle, the connections between racial and environmental justice, and the movement to abolish the prison industrial complex. Strikers are grateful to the amazing undergraduate organizers who made this visit possible. 

Today I learned that the UC’s annual operating budget is approximately $9.5 BILLION with a fat B. A group of organizers is working to target state government officials, especially Gov. Gavin Newsom, to ask that $310 million of the state’s $21.5 billion (ANOTHER B) 2020 surplus be allocated for statewide COLA funding for the UC system. Supporters are encouraged to call Gavin Newsom’s office and ask that $310 million be allocated for a UC wide COLA. 

In honor of election day, organizers have planned a “Super BBQs-day” election bbq party at the picket line tomorrow. Anyone who needs to vote on campus is encouraged to cross the picket line! In addition to the regular loop buses, there will be voter taxis available at the base of campus to help people get to the polls efficiently. 

Some of today’s action items: 

• Join strikers on the picket line, beginning Monday at 7:30am. Please bring friends! You can also bring supplies: sunscreen, coffee, hand sanitizer, healthy food, and large containers of drinking water are always in demand.
• Donate to the strike fund to support striking grads and to provide material relief to our fired grads: gofundme.com/f/support-fund-for-striking-workers-at-ucsc  Please share the strike fund with your networks!
• Faculty are encouraged to discuss moving to a full teaching strike.
• Cancel your classes and sections, and do not ask your students to cross the picket line, especially this coming Monday and Tuesday.
• Lecturers should consider holding their classes at the picket. 
• Push back the dates of large assignments, or as some instructors have done, cancel them. 
• Write to the administration asking them to come to the table to work with graduate students and to rescind the decision to fire nearly 100 graduate student workers. 
• Call Gavin Newsom’s office to complain about the firing of graduate students, the extreme rent burden of graduate students, and to ask that $310 million be allocated for a UC wide COLA. Click here for contact information. 

As always, thank you so so much for your support, and extra special thanks to our undergraduates and to the faculty who have been coming out to support strikers–we are so grateful. 

See you tomorrow!

From gsa_pres

Today, UCSC administration announced the termination of 54 graduate student workers, and sent out official dismissal letters to at least 44 of us. 

Late this afternoon, a series of graduate student workers received an email from the Office of the EVC containing only the following single sentence:

This email serves to inform you that you will no longer be considered for or receive any Academic Student Employee (ASE) appointment including such positions as teaching assistant, graduate student instructor, tutor, or reader, for the spring quarter of the 2019-20 academic year.

We are still confirming the number of fired graduate student workers, and believe it may be as high as 80.

In solidarity with their comrades and colleagues on Kletzer’s chopping block, graduate students from 22 academic departments, comprising over 550 individual workers, have already pledged at a minimum to refuse Spring appointments vacated by terminated grads. Many of these graduate workers have pledged to refuse all Spring appointments if a single wildcat striker is terminated. Taking these pledges at their word, at least 394 graduate student workers are now committed to declining spring appointments in one form or another. 

In response to this grave administrative escalation, we call for the cancellation of classes on Monday and for everyone to join us on the picket for a press conference at 9am.

On Monday, we wear red for the future of higher ed. The strike continues. See you on the picket.

Please come out Monday!

From Joe Klein
February 28, 2020

Dear Colleagues, 

I wanted to write again with some updates from the ongoing strike. 
For the 14th day, graduate students, undergraduates, faculty, staff, lecturers, and others rallied at the base of campus. For the 14th consecutive working day, metro bus drivers refused to cross the picket line in solidarity with striking graduate students. Today’s energy built from yesterday’s Radical History March and Teach In which moved across campus gathering support and teaching about the history of student and labor organizing at UC Santa Cruz. Strikers sang and chanted about the legacy of social movements that they now join, before marching down to the base where they peacefully shut down the main entrance to campus.

Just after noon today, EVC Lori Kletzer wrote to inform graduate students that they were being fired from their spring appointments. In an email which began with laughable posturing about “increasing support” and “caring deeply” about graduate students, Lori Kletzer proceeded to fire close to 100 graduate students, knowingly and willingly depriving them of housing, medical care, the ability to feed their children and families, and condemning international students to deportation. As one grad noted, “Nothing like being fired by someone who really cares.” It is worth reiterating that EVC Kletzer’s claim to have attempted to “find an amenable resolution” is false, or in a more colloquial sense, a lie. Administration has never agreed to discuss “amenable solutions” with graduate students, preferring instead to dictate the terms of a labor dispute, to call in police to arrest and brutalize students, and then to fire them unilaterally, going against the directives and wishes of the Faculty Senate, the Graduate Student Association, and the undergraduate Student Union Assembly.

This is mayday. To meet this egregious escalation, strikers are organizing for a massive week of action for this coming week 9. In an incredible show of solidarity, more than 500 graduate students have so far pledged to refuse appointments and go on strike. We will need all hands on deck to disrupt the violence of this university and to fight for a living wage for graduate workers. Faculty are called upon to get organized as quickly as possible and to move towards a full teaching strike. Together, faculty, graduate students, undergraduates, staff, and lecturers continue to fight for living wages for all of us, and for a university that works for all of us, not just the privileged or elite. And so the strike continues!

If you have ever cared about a graduate student we need you at the picket line on Monday. This is about your friends, your students, and the future of graduate education at the University of California. Please come join us in defiant celebration wearing red for education. 

As of today, UCSC has spent at least $4.2 million on police presence at the picket line. This is nearly 20% of the annual cost of a COLA for all graduates at UCSC at the rate of $1412 per month. It was also revealed today that Chancellor Cynthia Larive is in charge of a discretionary fund of approximately $120 million dollars, from which the police presence at the picket line has been paid. In other words, Larive could have paid for the entire annual cost of a COLA for all grads and still had $100 million left over in her no-strings-attached slush fund. While administration has made its priorities clear, we nevertheless, once again, invite them to negotiate in good faith to bring this strike to an end and to prevent further ongoing labor actions.

Yesterday as strikers chanted “UC UC you can’t hide, this strike’s going UC wide!,” the strike was indeed spreading like wildfire. On Thursday UC Santa Barbara began a full teaching strike to demand their own COLA and in solidarity with UCSC, while UC Davis also began a grading strike. UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Merced, and UC San Diego are organizing toward strikes of their own. Meanwhile, yesterday the statewide UC graduate workers union UAW 2865 has filed Unfair Labor Practice charges against the University of California, and today Senator Bernie Sanders again called on Janet Napolitano and UCSC to negotiate with striking graduate students and stop union-busting. 

More information about the week ahead will be forthcoming but we are planning a massive “Red for Ed” rally on Monday, a Get out the Vote / Super BBQs-day on Tuesday with voter taxis, and a “Cola-chela” lineup of musical performances on Wednesday as a taste.  
Some of today’s action items: 

• Join strikers on the picket line, beginning Monday at 7:30am. Please wear red and please bring friends! You can also bring supplies: sunscreen, coffee, hand sanitizer, healthy food, and large containers of drinking water are always in demand.   
• Donate to the strike fund to support striking grads and to provide material relief to our fired grads: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-fund-for-striking-workers-at-ucsc  Please share the strike fund with your networks!
• Faculty are encouraged to move to a full teaching strike. 
• Cancel your classes and sections, and do not ask your students to cross the picket line, especially this coming Monday and Tuesday.
• Lecturers should consider holding their classes at the picket. 
• Push back the dates of large assignments, or as some instructors have done, cancel them. 
• Write to the administration asking them to come to the table to work with graduate students and to rescind the decision to fire nearly 100 graduate student workers. 

As always, thank you so so much for your support, and extra special thanks to our undergraduates and to the faculty who have been coming out to support strikers–we are so grateful. 

See you Monday!
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