UC-Wide Academic Worker Unions Rally for Improved Working Conditions

The UAW 2865, UAW 5810, and the Student Researchers United-UAW workers unions gathered in front of UC San Diego’s Biomedical Sciences Library to rally for better working and living conditions on April 26.

UAW 2865 represents Academic Student Employees at UC campuses, while UAW 5810 represents Postdoctoral Scholars and Academic Researchers at UC campuses. Academic Student Employees include teaching assistants (TAs), tutors, associates, and readers. The Student Researchers United-UAW workers union represents students who work in research positions in the UC system. These three unions are organized by the UAW, which represents academic workers across the United States.

Protesters began with a rally outside the Biomedical Sciences Library as a San Diego Police Department helicopter circled overhead at 4:00 p.m. The rally crowd grew to well over a hundred protesters before demonstrators marched through the biomedical campus to the intersection of Villa La Jolla Drive and La Jolla Village Drive.

UC San Diego Police Department sent out a community alert bulletin at around 4:38 p.m. informing all academics, staff, and students at UCSD to avoid Villa La Jolla Drive between Gilman Drive and La Jolla Village Drive and avoid La Jolla Village Drive between Gilman Drive and Interstate Five due to “police activity.”

As the protestors marched, working parents lined a pedestrian bridge over Villa La Jolla Drive demanding the University of California to provide childcare resources.

At 4:30 p.m., the SDPD helicopter left as SDPD officers, including at least one plainclothes officer, watched the protest from a distance. Protesters arrived at the intersection at approximately 4:45 p.m. where they circled and held signs that read “Fair housing now,” “Pay us enough to live here,” and “End rent burden now.”

At 6:30 p.m., an unlawful assembly was declared by SDPD. While most protesters moved to the corners of the intersection, seven UAW members started a sit-in in the middle of the intersection.

The SDPD helicopter returned overhead at approximately 6:40 p.m. as several police officers arrived on the ground. Police officers then began escorting each union member participating in the sit-in one by one to the southeast corner of the intersection. All seven UAW members were cited with Penal Code 407 (Unlawful assembly), Penal Code 409 (Failure to disperse), and San Diego Municipal Code 83.0202(b) (Interfere with traffic by sitting in roadway) before being released.

By about 7:00 p.m., all roads were reopened and the protestors had dispersed. A second community alert bulletin was sent at around 7:03 p.m. alerting that all intersections had reopened.

This protest was one of several demonstrations organized by  union workers across UC campuses to demand better wages, lower rent, and end workplace discrimination and harrassment. Protests at UCLA resulted in 26 union members getting arrested, and protests at UC Berkeley resulted in a major intersection being shut down and held by union members.

Ahmed Akhtar, a fifth year graduate student pursuing a PhD in Physics at UCSD and the bargaining team representative for Student Researchers United, stated that academic workers are “demanding a fair workplace in the UC … fair wages, so that academic workers aren’t rent burdened.”

The University of California has stated on March 3 that they are negotiating a new contract for Academic Student Employees. The contract will include fair pay for employees, benefits and family support, and respectful working conditions.

“They’re proposing wage cuts for all academic workers and have done nothing to address the rampant rent burden that academic workers deal with … what we’re asking for is a fair contract,” Akhtar stated.

“UC pays us so little that more than 90% of all of the members of UAW 2865 are rent burdened. They [UAW 2865 members] pay more than 30% of their income on rent,” voiced Amy Kanne, a first-year PhD student in the Computer Science and Engineering department at UCSD, a member of UAW 2865, and an elected bargaining team representative for the Student Researchers United union.

The United States Federal Reserve defines a “rent burdened” individual as someone who is “spending more than 30 percent of income on housing.”

In the past year, the cost of on-campus housing for graduate students has increased. For the 2022-23 school year, UCSD Housing Dining and Hospitality (HDH) is charging students who arrived at UCSD before January 1, 2022 $924 a month for a Studio Single Occupancy bedroom in Mesa Nueva, a graduate student housing community. That cost has increased to $1,338 a month for incoming residents who have arrived at UCSD on or after January 1, 2022.

A PhD student who stays at UCSD year-round for their research and academic duties and lives in a Mesa Nueva Studio Single Occupancy bedroom in the 2022-23 academic year would spend $16,056 per year on rent.

Stipends for UCSD’s PhD students range from $30,000 to $36,000 a year. Thus, if a PhD student earns that maximum possible stipend at $36,000, this student would be spending 44.6% of their income on rent each year, exceeding the U.S. Federal Reserve’s 30% requirement to be considered rent burdened.

Graduate student housing is not guaranteed. HDH estimates wait times for a Studio Single Occupancy bedroom at Mesa Nueva would necessitate a three to five month wait. The longest estimated wait time provided by HDH is 29 months.

Finding off-campus housing presents its own set of challenges as precipitated by the current “housing crisis” at UCSD.

Protestors are hoping for a contract from UCSD that will fulfill their basic needs, including fair pay and affordable housing, as well as being treated with respect in the workplace.

Lara Donabedian is a staff writer for The Triton. Staff Writer Liam Winstead assisted with the research and writing for this article.