The Demonstration Teachers at the UCLA Lab School, represented by UC-AFT, are on strike on January 25 and 26 because of unfair labor practices. Management refuses to bargain over the full scope of negotiable topics, including class size, instructional supports (including TAs, Instructional Assistants, and classroom materials budgets), planning time, reassignment, layoff, reappointment process, merit reviews, personal leave days, compensation for public engagement, and calendar. UCLA management and Lab School administration are wrongly stating that the strike is illegal.
To support the striking Lab School teachers, please write to UCLA administrators (sample letter here), sign this petition, and sign up here to receive updated information.
“UC graduate student workers ratify labor agreement, end historic strike with big wage gains.” Teresa Watanabe, Los Angeles Times, December 23, 2022. [pdf]
“Vote by UC graduate student workers to ratify labor agreement exposed a sharp divide among campuses.” Paloma Esquivel, Los Angeles Times, December 24, 2022. [pdf]
“Grad student unions strike controversial deal with University of California.” Katie Langin, Science, December 19, 2022. [pdf]
The UC Regents have a previously scheduled regular meeting at the Luskin Conference Center at UCLA on Wednesday, December 14. The striking academic workers have organized a rally outside the Luskin Conference Center to start at 9:30am on that day. At this critical moment, showing up to this action is the single most important action that faculty and staff can take before the end of the year to show our support. We have set a goal of 100 UCLA faculty to attend. We believe that this goal is achievable. Please come and reach out to your colleagues, even if they have not been previously active. Everyone is welcome to this historic event! Also, please reach out to your friends at nearby UC campuses including UC Riverside, UC Irvine, and UC San Diego and ask them to come! Please sign in here so we can organize folks beforehand (we will meet on campus at a nearby location and then march in together). Please come out and support our students in their fight for livable wages and for a UC that works for everyone!
Here are some recent news articles about the strike and faculty support!
Please join us for a Faculty Solidarity March and Rally at 1pm on Friday December 2! We will meet at the Kuruvungna Steps (also known as the Janss Steps) at 1pm, hold a short rally, and then march to the Faculty Club. We will have great faculty speakers, we will give away buttons for strike supporters, and serve great food!
The UC-AFT, representing 6,500 Non-Senate Faculty and 350 Librarians at the ten UC campuses, yesterday sent a letter
to UC President Michael Drake stating:
“Campus administrators have been telling Unit 18 lecturers to consult with their union regarding how to continue our instruction without the essential help of GSIs in our classes. . . . Many of the administrators and supervisors who are making these recommendations are so far removed from the classroom, they don’t recognize the implications for our students. The suggested solutions being offered not only are inadequate, but also often instruct our members to violate provisions of our contract. Likewise, these recommendations are not fair to our undergraduate students, who depend on us to provide them with a consistent and high-quality education. The university has created an impossible situation for its students and teaching faculty and the only solution to these problems is to settle the strike now. . . . We urge you to bring an end to bad faith bargaining, end the university’s unfair labor practices, and settle the UAW contracts immediately.”
On November 29, 2022, the Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at UCLA issued a statement saying that “As the end of the Fall quarter nears, please know that if the state-sanctioned strike continues beyond the deadline to submit grades, we will be in solidarity with strikers and we will not submit grades.”
On November 29, 2022, Prof. Sherene H. Razack, Chair of the Department of Gender Studies at UCLA, announced: “This message is to inform you that if the graduate student workers strike continues beyond the deadline to submit grades, in solidarity, instructors of Gender Studies courses will not submit grades until the strike ends. We look forward to UC administrators resolving the strike and bargaining in good faith.”
Candace Hanson reports that UC has engaged in intimidation tactics, including notifying workers in Life Sciences that their research work in the lab are part of “course credits” rather than employment and threatening grading penalties in associated placeholder courses. Please join the march starting at 1:30pm on Monday, November 28 at the Inverted Fountain.
We are seeking faculty signatories for a letter from UC faculty to Governor Newsom, Senate President Pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, and California State Senate and Assembly representatives calling for the UC to bargain in good faith with the UAW strikers and for the State of California to reinvest in the UC. We believe that state government leaders do not fully appreciate how crucial graduate student and academic workers are to the UC’s mission, and we need to help convince them. Anna Markowitz and Graeme Blair here at UCLA drafted the letter, and we would love to have as many signatures from UC senate faculty and lecturers as possible, so please read the faculty letter and sign here! Please circulate the letter widely to your friends and colleagues throughout the UC, at https://forms.gle/bo2wnXkCU3iKuio3A.
