December 10th – Admin Sends Email Explaining Why They Are “Unable to Negotiate”

Dear Graduate Students,

Thank you for inviting us to meet with you. While you are under contract we are unable to negotiate the terms and conditions of your employment with you. We will not meet with you during an illegal work stoppage, but would be willing to meet with you after the work disruption is over. We continue to work on solutions to the rental burden issues experienced by our community

Sincerely,

Quentin Williams

Acting Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies

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.