30A Genially Storyboard - 2022 UAW Strike

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2022 UAW Strike

What is UAW?

What was the 2022 UAW Strike?

Dec. 23th: UAW 2865's agreement with the university was ratified by 62% (11,386 to 7,097), while SRU-UAW's agreement passed with 68% approval (10,057 to 4,640). The 2022 ratification saw a historic turnout, with over 92% of 36,000 eligible graduate student workers voting. In comparison, only 4,374 participated in the 2018 vote, which had 59% approval. The strike ended with the ratification of these contracts.

Dec. 16th: 36,000 graduate student researchers and teaching assistants represented by SRU-UAW and UAW 2865 reached a tentative agreement with the university.

Dec. 9th: The UC and the remaining bargaining units agreed to engage a private mediator to advance negotiations. Prior to this, the UC and UAW had conducted over 60 bargaining sessions, during which the UC made seven formal requests for mediation. Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg acted as the mediator.

Oct. 26th to Nov. 2nd: The UAW conducted strike authorization votes, achieving a voter participation rate of 76% and over 97% in favor of striking.

Nov. 14: Academic workers from the UC's started striking.

Nov. 29: A tentative agreement has been reached for approximately 12,000 postdoctoral and academic researchers represented by UAW 5810.

Dates that led:

UC Irvine

Interact to hear the voices of those impacted by the UC's unfair labor practices and wages.

UC Santa Barbara

UCSD

UC Riverside

UCLA

UC Davis

UC Merced

UC Berkley

UC Santa Cruz

The negotiations between the academic student union workers and the UC began in Spring 2021. UC academic workers particpated in the strikes and were represented by three units of UAW unions on the UC's campuses. Prepared and organized by union leaders and employees, the strike was held on all the UC campuses. And, through speech, word-of-mouth, and social media, many individuals (i.e students and workers) participated in solidarity.

How were the strikes made possible?

https://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/labor-news/uaw-news-and-updates-2/ https://www.uaw4811.org/ https://outwritenewsmag.org/2022/11/uaw-strike-at-ucla-in-photos/ https://triton.news/2022/11/live-updates-student-researchers-and-academic-workers-strike-across-all-uc-campuses/ 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/ https://www.pinkknightpress.com/news/uaw-strike-davis1 https://ucbfa.org/2022/11/grateful-the-grad-students-are-striking/ https://ccpulse.org/2022/11/22/uc-academic-student-workers-strike-for-living-wages/ https://www.kazu.org/kazu-news/2022-11-15/uc-santa-cruz-academic-workers-are-on-strike-for-higher-pay https://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/local/education/uc-merced/article269549987.html https://www.kvcrnews.org/news/2022-11-15/uc-riverside-workers-participate-in-statewide-uc-strike

Sources/Credit:

“The UC has failed to support a diverse workforce and it undermines the quality of research and education,” said Albert DiBenedetto, who is a TA and a doctoral candidate in the department of Physics at UC Merced. Source: Merced Sunstar

"UAW Local 4811 is the union for 48,000 workers at the University of California: 36,000 Academic Student Employees, 7,000 Postdocs, and 5,000 Academic Researchers. Together, we collectively bargain for better working conditions and build power to win a fairer and more democratic university." uaw4811.org

“I still pay upwards of 40% of my paycheck on rent and so that’s still considered being rent-burdened, and a lot of our workers at UC are rent-burdened,” Esquivel said. “So that’s paying more than 30% of your monthly income on housing.” Source: The Contra Costa Pulse

The University of California (UC) academic workers' strike was a labor strike led by the United Auto Workers (UAW) that began on November 14, 2022. The strike was the largest in the United States in 2022 and in U.S. higher education.

“We are overworked and underpaid, and we are fed up,” said Jamie Mondello, a 27-year-old psychology graduate student worker at UCLA and member of UAW Local 2865 and Student Researchers United. “Our proposals bring everyone into a livable wage. We’re, as a whole, just asking to be treated with dignity. We really keep the UC running.” Source: LA Times

Today at U.C. Davis, the Russel picket had upwards of six hundred participants and their supporters, with banners, signs, resource sharing, and free hot meals. Speakers discussed maintaining strikers and addressing their needs to be able to continue the long-term strike they say is needed to keep pressure on. Source: Pink Knight Press

"We're being asked to provide high quality teaching...to publish research, and you struggle to pay your basic bills," Galindez said. "It just adds a lot of stress all around." Source: 90.3 kazu

“We are willing to bring the University’s functions of education and teaching to a halt. We are willing to stop classes, to stop lectures. We are willing to withhold grades; that is going to be our biggest weapon, because the grading deadline is December 14,” said Misa Nguyen, a graduate student in the history department and a TA for Greek Mythology, at the UCSB rally on Monday. Source: Santa Barbara Independent

“I think I'm really feeling the energy, momentum and the care that is going into our picket line. People are out here not just for themselves, but also for their co-workers, for their families and for their students. Right. We're out here to support each other. And that feeling of solidarity is really inescapable on the picket line today,” said Do. Source: KVCR

"Danny Heinz, a sixth-year Ph.D. student in the Biological Sciences Department and a member of the UAW-SAR, spoke to the crowd regarding the trials of simultaneously starting a family and pursuing a Ph.D. at UCSD. “When I started my Ph.D., I knew I wanted to have kids, but we don’t make jack shit … For me to put off having a family, that is a crime. For me to be forced to put off having a family, that is a crime. So we decided that we are not going to accept that crime; we were going to have a family and we were going to work it out,” Heinz said." Source: The Trition

Kien Le, 27, is a teaching assistant in the English Department and said he joined the main picket for better pay and job security. He said he makes $20,000 and lives in university-owned campus housing. “The university has been engaging in a lot of unlawful behaviors, like negotiating with specific departments,” he said. “We just want them to negotiate with us in good faith.” Sources: LA Times