Academic workers perform most of the teaching and research at the prestigious University of California 10 campus system. Today, they walked off the job demanding pay increases, better healthcare, child-care subsidies, more extended family leave, public transit, and parking passes.
They are represented by the UAW and this is the nation's largest strike of the year.
Perhaps the most significant demand is 14% salary raises. Currently. Grad student researchers are paid $24k/year and charged $1K/mo (50% of their annual pay) for on-campus housing. The university is both their landlord and employer. Academic researchers who do not live on campus are comped five days of parking/month but are charged $18/day beyond that. At 15 more work days per month, that’s $270/month and $3240/year. Many workers have no choice but to work second and even third jobs.
From
LA Times: "While the two sides recently agreed on stronger protections against workplace bullying and abuse, UC’s proposals on wages remain far from the $54,000 base salary that union leaders say would be fair — and would amount to more than double the workers’ average current pay of about $24,000 annually.
“UC believes its offers are generous, responsive to union priorities, and recognize the many valuable contributions of these employees,” university officials wrote in a statement about the negotiations, which have been ongoing since spring 2021.
UC has offered a salary scale increase of 7% in the first year and 3% in each subsequent year, but workers have said that’s not sufficient."
My daughter, an academic researcher at UC Irvine, told me UPS and FedEx have said they will not cross the picket lines. This means that deliveries will not be made.
“Postdocs, researchers, graduate student teaching assistants basically run the university in many ways,” Nott said. “We teach the majority of the classes. We grade more papers than any faculty member there is. We do cutting-edge research that brings in a huge amount of funding to the UC system. The demands that we’re asking for only make up 3% of the UC’s annual budget. It’s a really minuscule ask in terms of what UC can afford.”
It wasn’t immediately clear how many classes, labs, or scheduled academic activities were interrupted Monday, but students at UCLA and at campuses across the state reported many classes canceled."
According to my source, striking workers receive $400/week in hardship pay and are hoping the strike won’t last more than two weeks.