Thousands On Strike Across UC Campuses
Students, workers and faculty organized a strike across University of California (UC) campuses to fight for better wages.
Students, workers and faculty have organized a strike across University of California (UC) campuses throughout the state with the aim of fighting for better wages for graduate students who work at the university, increasing child care subsidies for students with children and eliminating the additional tuition that international students have to pay.
Hundreds of people attended the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) rally, with the mantra of the protestors being "seven percent don't pay the rent" in reference to the University's offer to raise current wages by seven percent. The strikers believe this increase to be insufficient and have gone as far to allege that the negotiations are in bad faith and unlawful. One of the leading organizers Desmond Fonseca, a student researcher at UCLA, said that the catalyst for the strike was months of unproductive and unsuccessful bargaining with the college.
"What the unlawful bargaining is doing is delaying the process of getting a fair contract and that's why we're out here, as an escalation, to show the University that what it's doing isn't right," he said.
Fonseca, while not surprised by the turnout for the strike, was impressed by what it actually looked like.
"When I saw the legion of people walking down Westwood Boulevard, that's when it really hit me what our power was.”
"48,000 academic student workers/employees across 4 different bargaining units and 3 different unions are struggling for fair pay and for fair compensation, living compensation for the work that we do. The work that we do is making the University of California allegedly the number one public university in the world and we just believe that our work should be treated as such.”
According to Fonseca, the strikers are seeking the elimination of non-residential supplemental tuition, increased child-care subsidies and wage increase from a current base pay of $24,000 to $54,000 for student employees.
“This isn't about financial impasse, it's about an impasse of will, it's about impasse of intentions, University of California's intentions are poor, they can afford it, it's not about whether or not they can afford it, it's about the actions they are willing to take," he said.
Fonseca believes that this strike will force the University to negotiate and stated that there is no intention to stop until the demands of the workers are met.
"The next step is staying out here until we get what we deserve and more specifically until the University of California ceases its unfair labor practices and bargains in good faith, because once they start bargaining in good faith we believe we can come to an agreement on a contract,” Fonseca said.
Over a week into the strike, the protests and negotiations with the University of California are still ongoing, with some classes being canceled and normal academic routine being actively disrupted.
