Written by Sianna Vega, a UC Davis student and general member of La Raza Pre-Law Student Association
The fierce cheering and social force of UC academic workers in their fight for basic standards of living has proven an unbreakable drive. Beginning this Monday, 48,000 workers across all ten UC campuses have gained traction on the picket line and don’t show any sign of backing down. The students in the United Auto Workers union (UAW) agreed by a landslide of 98 percent to support a strike to advocate for increased salaries for grad workers, postdocs, and improved cost of living adjustments.
What does this entail? The result of the UC’s unjust labor practices calls for participation, across the board, in a student and employee walkout. Teaching assistants (TAs) have temporarily dismissed their duties to teach sections to promote the importance of their roles in the UC system through a state-wide protest.
Most notably, they are also responsible for recordkeeping, grading assignments, and holding office hours which is fundamentally important for undergraduate education, and in simple fact, still have to struggle with rent burden totaling over 50 percent of their annual gross income. Izzy Muise, a teaching assistant here at UC Davis, spends over 75 percent of her salary on rent, and with health conditions feels forced to “choose between my degree and my health”.
This is nowhere close to the basic needs of a human to survive, especially in occupations that call for egregious amounts of work that most notoriously cause a struggle with mental health and rapidly increased concern for physical health. The UC system can easily afford the actions that are urged by the advocates when taking note of the prior 18 percent pay increase for UC Chancellors (now more than $585,000) along with a $6.5 million mansion purchase for UC President Drake. These unjustified payments are also not gaining traction for a possibly well-intentioned aspect with a quite hypocritical UC President website headline promoting how “The University of California has always had a policy of access, affordability, and excellence”. This is not quite fitting to represent the plain majority of grad students that are living with everyday insecurities of food and shelter.
As far as hypocrisy goes, it is increasingly important to be aware of these injustices. Although there isn't a clear direct way to enact these propositions without the UC system, participation in the picket line and circulation of the significance of our academic workers provides crucial and desired support.
References:
“UC Workers Say They Are Struggling to Survive in California, and Fighting Unfair System.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 16 Nov. 2022, https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-11-16/behind-uc-strike-a-push-to-change-a-way-of-life-for-academic-aides.
“Fair Compensation & Cost of Living Adjustments.” Fair UC Now, https://www.fairucnow.org/cola/.
Mansions for Chancellors, Rent Burden for Workers - Fairucnow.org. http://www.fairucnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/UAW-housing-paper.pdf.
Fausey, Callie. “On Third Day of UC Strike, California Labor Federation Calls for Cancellation of All Events on UC Campuses.” The Santa Barbara Independent, 17 Nov. 2022, https://www.independent.com/2022/11/16/on-third-day-of-uc-strike-california-labor-federation-calls-for-cancellation-of-all-events-on-uc-campuses/.
Karlamangla, Soumya. “U.C. Workers Strike on All 10 Campuses.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 Nov. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/15/us/uc-workers-strike.html.
“President Michael V. Drake, M.D.” UCOP, https://www.ucop.edu/president/.
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