We are writing as Feminist Studies Graduate students in support of the full strike for a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) beginning Monday, February 10, 2020.
As graduate workers in this department, attuned to the structural conditions of the neoliberal labor market which inform the workings of the university, we feel assured in calling for a full work stoppage and are asking faculty to support by canceling classes, not crossing and the picket line and joining strikers at the base of campus instead. We make this ask, unequivocally, for this coming Monday and Tuesday and will maintain lines of communication regarding further action later in the week. A work stoppage is made all the more urgent in light of escalating threats from the administration regarding the dismissal of employment, with particular risks posed to our international students.
As graduate students, we are united in withholding our labor, which is crucial to the university’s function, and encourage faculty to demonstrate respective solidarity, acknowledging differing vulnerabilities across the graduate and faculty body. We hope that this solidarity in Feminist Studies for a full work stoppage can, in turn, be an example for other departments to take such action. We ask faculty for this form of solidarity as it will greatly increase the impact and effectiveness of this strike in moving us towards a COLA by affirming the value of our labor while demonstrating a significant force of graduate worker support to the administration.
We support the call put out by the COLA campaign organizers, which offers many possibilities for supporting the picket. We want to point out that zoom should not be used when possible because of the way that it furthers the casualization of labor in the university. At the same time, we recognize that this may be the best option for some lecturers, whose status as employees of the UC is extremely precarious and can be used strategically as it is an accessible option. While a full work stoppage means cancellation of sections and classes, we recognize the picket as a site of feminist praxis. This makes the picket line an opportunity for students to learn about the COLA campaign and its significance in a larger context of education privatization, labor organizing, the neoliberal structure of the university and its circuits of capital more broadly. Please advocate for your students to come to the picket, learn and build community in support of their TA’s, share information about the strike and imagine the university differently.
We look forward to seeing you all at the picket line Monday morning beginning at 7:30 AM.
In Solidarity,
- Lani Hanna
- Claire Urbanski
- Gabe Evans
- Taylor Wondergem
- Noya Kansky
- Anne Fosburg
- Anne Napatalung
- Marina Segatti
- Emily Padilla
- Jessica Calvanico
- Elana Santana
- Yizhou Guo
- Vivian Underhill
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