Introduction
Yesterday afternoon, about eighty graduate students and a dozen undergraduates convened in McHenry Library to discuss what a full strike will look like for different groups of UCSC student-workers. After sharing concerns and potential strategies, groups of TAs, GSIs, GSRs, fellowship recipients, and undergraduates met to discuss their visions for next week’s strike escalation.
Below are recommendations for how to plan for the next week. These recommendations should be adapted to your own level of readiness and contextual factors (e.g. the level of support you receive from your department and the ways that withholding your labor impacts the institution).
Importantly, everyone should show up to the picket line at the base of campus on Monday, February 10 at 7:30 AM, in order to provide maximum visibility and disruption.
We will hold meetings on the picket line at the end of day (4:30pm-5:30pm) to assess new developments and plan our next steps.
What happens now / What you can do / What to expect next week
- Department-level organizing: this is a critical time to check in with classmates, colleagues, and faculty to discuss what strategies graduate students could and should take.
- If one hasn’t already been scheduled, call a department meeting. Personally call every graduate student that you know in your department to encourage participation. The more one-on-one conversations you have, the better.
- If you haven’t polled your department, do so now (poll model here, please duplicate and tailor and feedback results to payusmoreucsc@gmail.com). The poll at Thursday’s general assembly was framed as “an assessment of our collective power,” rather than a vote. Department polls will be more representative of the specific actions that your department can achieve with regards to this week’s strike action.
Actions this week:
- Tonight’s GSA/COLA/MMM, 5-8pm, at the GSC, with an undergraduate teach-in on debt, and discussion of undergraduate demands, 5:45-6:30pm.
- STEM “Work-in” at Coastal Sciences on Friday, 2/7, 10:30am-3:30pm with screenprinting. Bring a t-shirt! Restock on buttons!
How to strike as a TA
If your department is highly organized and supportive, we need you and your faculty on the picket line! Having a massive presence at the base of campus makes it clear that we are on strike, business cannot continue as usual, and that we have numbers/support.
- Join the picket on Monday morning, February 10 beginning at 7:30 AM.
- Send a letter to your department. Call on faculty to honor the picket line. Instead of holding classes on campus, recommend that they relocate to the base of campus. This has been common practice during past AFSCME strikes and helps to increase undergraduate turnout/education on the picket line. (See “Template for Faculty” PDF attached)
- Send an email to your students and encourage them to show up to the picket – you can use the template we include below. (See “Template for Undergrads” PDF attached)
- Hold your section/office hours on the picket line.
- If you are in STEM and/or your department is in the early stages of building power, conduct “Teach the Strike” teach-ins. These teach-ins can be critical for strengthening undergrad-grad relationships and building interdepartmental solidarity. Sign up here.
How to strike as a GSR
What is most important for GSRs to consider is how withholding work will or will not make an impact on the institution. If, for example, your GSR is directly linked to your dissertation data collection or to your advancement in your lab, you may want to find more covert ways to show your support than withholding your labor completely. Based on yesterday’s group discussion with GSRs, here are our recommendations for how to participate in the strike:
- Join the picket on Monday morning, February 10 beginning at 7:30 AM.
- Show up and support the picket whenever possible. Organize your lab or research team to commit to times on the picket lines.
- If you have to continue GSR work, wear the COLA wildcat t-shirt, a UAW 2865 t-shirt, or red (for Ed). Wear COLA buttons to the lab and seminars.
- If you are in STEM, add a COLA slide to every research presentation and talk about COLA at rotation presentations (template COLA slides will be uploaded on payusmoreucsc.com); consider wearing lab coats if that’s relevant to your research.
- Work in public/visible spaces: join the “work-in” at Coastal Sciences on Friday, 2/7, 10:30am-3:30pm
- Start a conversation with other GSRs about unionizing. What are the grievances you have as a GSR (for example, no cap on hours you have to work; no set date for the paycheck; protections from exploitation)? Attend, or help present, a presentation at the picket about unionizing GSRs and voice those concerns. Contact gilichinskaya@gmail.com for more information.
If withholding your work will immediately impact the administration, we encourage you to completely withhold your labor.
How to strike as a GSI
For GSIs, we want to make clear that we are emphasizing the critical role we have in keeping the UC running, while simultaneously articulating that we do not want to hurt students’ academic progress (particularly those who are already falling behind).
Some options for GSIs that were discussed during yesterday’s meeting are:
- Join the picket on Monday morning, February 10 beginning at 7:30 AM.
- Cancel classes or relocate them to the picket line.
- Hold extended office hours on the picket line.
- Send an email to your students and encourage them to show up to the picket – you can use the template we include below. (See “Template for Undergrads” PDF below)
- Hold classes in alternative spaces (off campus, online, or in very visible spaces like Kerr Hall, McHenry Library)
- If you are in STEM and/or your department is in the early stages of building power, conduct “Teach the Strike” teach-ins. These teach-ins can be critical for strengthening undergrad-grad relationships and building interdepartmental solidarity. Sign up here.
- Show up and support the picket whenever possible.
How to strike on fellowship
What is most important for graduate students on fellowship to consider is how to use your position to put pressure on the UC and support the efforts of strikers. Based on the group discussion with graduate students on fellowship, here are some recommendations on how to participate in the strike:
- Join the picket on Monday morning, February 10 beginning at 7:30 AM.
- Show up and support the picket whenever possible.
- Offer to conduct teach-ins, particularly for STEM classes. To do this, sign up here.
- Offer to support TAs and GSIs during (traditional or alternative) class sessions to show solidarity.
Please await forthcoming information in the next few days on:
- How to protect yourself from retaliation
- How to strike as an undergraduate
- FAQs
- General strategies for alternative forms of teaching
In solidarity.
Attachments
Email sent among graduate students Feb 4, 2020