At least 54 graduate student workers on strike at UC Santa Cruz (UCSC) received a letter today notifying them of the university’s intent to dismiss them from their spring quarter teaching assistant (TA) appointments.
Graduate student workers at UCSC went on a wildcat strike withholding grades in December, demanding that administrators meet to negotiate a cost of living adjustment (COLA) to their labor contract. A wildcat strike includes strike actions such as a labor stoppage that are not authorized by union leadership.
“[The intent to dismiss] is based on abandonment of your job responsibilities by failing to submit student grades well past the fall quarter deadline … and failing to follow a directive provided to you from the Interim Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor,” said UCSC Acting Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies Quentin Williams in a letter sent to graduate students on strike.
The strike at UCSC escalated into a full work stoppage on February 10 with graduate students refusing to conduct research or hold class and office hours. Hundreds of graduate students, undergraduate students, and faculty have joined in a picket at the UCSC entrance. Picketers have been met with police in riot gear, and at least 17 have been arrested.
“We are shocked by [the University of California’s] callousness, and by the violence that so many protesters experienced as they peacefully made the case for a cost of living increase,” said President of UAW Local 2865 Kavitha Iyengar, the union that represents UC academic workers including those who were fired. “Instead of firing TAs who are standing up for a decent standard of living for themselves, [the University of California] must sit down at the bargaining table and negotiate a cost of living increase.”
UC administrators have deemed the strike at UCSC an illegal work stoppage. On February 14, UC President Janet Napolitano released a letter warning academic workers that they had until February 21 to submit withheld grades or be terminated from current or future teaching employment.
“[H]olding undergraduate grades hostage and refusing to carry out contracted teaching responsibilities is the wrong way to go,” wrote Napolitano in an open letter to the UCSC community. “Therefore, participation in the wildcat strike will have consequences, up to and including the termination of existing employment at the University.”
In response to the administration’s deadline, graduate students across the UC system affiliated with COLA, a movement inspired by the action by UCSC graduate students, held demonstrations at multiple campuses in solidarity with UCSC students. Graduate students affiliated with COLA, including UC San Diego, have pledged to withhold Winter Quarter 2020 grades if the university retaliated against graduate students at UCSC.
UCSB graduate students with the COLA campaign began a full strike Thursday refusing to hold class or conduct research, while students at UC Davis began a grading strike refusing to submit grades.
COLA 4 UCSD told The Triton they are waiting for the results from their strike poll before they decide on whether to escalate from actions in solidarity to a grading or work stoppage. COLA 4 UCSD will host a march on Monday in support of students on strike at UCSC.
The notice sent to graduate students on strikes says that their dismissal is effective March 26, 2020. Graduate students at UCSC are requesting people donate to their gofundme which will be distributed to the collective of strikers for food, action supplies, potential legal fees, and docked pay.
Mo Al Elew is a Senior Staff Writer for The Triton. You can follow him @SoloMune.
UPDATE: This article was updated with additional details on Friday, February 28 at 10:50pm
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https://employment.findlaw.com/wages-and-benefits/labor-strike-faqs.html
Pretty sure this is illegal.
Gregory Lu read the article. Stated reason for termination was failure to submit grades on time. Not illegal.
Jennifer Kaufman Djavadi yes thats waht part of a strike is. You stop doing your duties. If the underlying reason for their so called "failure to submit grades" or whatever the reason for firing is, if the cause of that is the strike, then they are firing people because of the strike. The reality of the situation is that this is effectively a firing because of a strike. What's the point of a strike if you have to still do the duties of your work?
Gregory Lu not how that works. They could have turned the grades in prior to the strike etc. I am 100 percent sure the UCs know labor law and have acted upon the advice of counsel. Who knows what the TAs contract says.
Jennifer Kaufman Djavadi UCSC is effectively trying to say that the strike is illegal, which, if in the contract states they can be fired for a strike, then it's fine. It hinges on whether or not the strike is legal. I'm sure the liberal functionalists would write a scathing review of this firing as having the intent to fire for strike.
If the firing is for the lateness of grades, then why weren't the fired December 19th, the day after grades were due for the fall quarter?
Gregory Lu Mr Lu. I’m not sure why you’re arguing with me. Read the article. Read the contract. Move on.
Jennifer Kaufman Djavadi you literally just said that you dont even know whats in the contract.
im going to just guess that you dont like unions.
Gregory Lu click your link, press control+F and type in wildcat.
"Graduate student workers at UCSC went on a wildcat strike withholding grades in December, demanding that administrators meet to negotiate a cost of living adjustment (COLA) to their labor contract. A wildcat strike includes strike actions such as a labor stoppage that are not authorized by union leadership."
https://triton.news/2020/02/breaking-uc-santa-cruz-graduate-students-on-strike-receive-termination-letter/?fbclid=IwAR3a_gYnt47zIj-PjERrO9KtKRckWk9BneZLoFFxJphRq_tTj_WbjQd91Es
Remington Krueger who is calling it a wildcat strike, the workers themselves or the administration
Holy Ghost
Story has been updated with additional details
This tantrum was not authorized by their union. In the real world you don't do your job and you disrupt the workplace, you get fired.
Some should take a history assignment and read up on Air Traffic Controllers strike. Here is Cliff Notes - On August 5, 1981 following the PATCO workers' refusal to return to work, Reagan fired the 11,345 striking air traffic controllers who had ignored the order, and banned them from federal service for life. ... The civil service ban on the remaining strike participants was lifted by President Bill Clinton on August 12, 1993.
I thought grad students would be smarter than to sign a contract with a no strike clause and then go out on a wildcat strike.
Poor widdle snowfwakes. Welcome to adulthood. Here in the land of reality, you work to make ends meet. You don't whine about it .
Today, I went to the beach front with my children. I found a sea
shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said "You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear." She
placed the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside
and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back!
LoL I know this is entirely off topic but I had to tell someone!