“48,000 ready to fight!”
“48,000 workers strong!”
“When I say union you say power!”
“Union!”
“Power!”
UCLA’s campus was punctuated by the shouts of protesters on November 16 as the whole UC system continues to be embroiled in student protests due to allegations of unfair labor practices.
Slogans such as “48,000 ready to fight” and “union power” permeated the air.
“Our most central demand is that we earn enough to live here,” said Sam Hunter, an organizer leading the strikes at UCLA’s campus through Fair UC Now. He is a Ph.D. student studying television and digital media, one of the many graduate workers striking for livable wages.
A livable wage in Los Angeles County for childless adults is about $45,536 a year. UCLA TA’s make an average of about $24,000 in an academic year, just below the classification of an “extremely low-income level” according to the U.S Department of Housing and Development.
“Many of us in my graduate program work second jobs in order to make ends meet because the university simply just does not pay us enough to live here,” Aya Konishi, a Ph.D. student studying sociology at UCLA states.
UCLA TA’s work up to 20 hours per week, a strenuous workload given their other responsibilities as students or researchers. More than a third of the student worker’s incomes go towards rent, with 40% of the workers even giving back half of their income to the university for housing.
A housing system under crisis and strain has also exacerbated student conditions.
Most UCLA students remain on campus for nine months. The cheapest on-campus rent for a single room in graduate housing is $975 per month, with the most expensive being $2781. This leads to a range of $8,775 - $25,029 for rent in a single academic year, with the most expensive housing exceeding the income of a TA.
The University of California’s unionized graduate student workers began striking on Monday, November 14. The TA’s refuse to teach courses until negotiations have been completed.
“We do the teaching, we do the grading, we do the research, and we make you see the number one public university,” Konishi said.
Along with the students were UCLA faculty and professors, who came to display solidarity with the workers. Many professors are forced to choose between continuing their classes or stopping to support their students.
“I feel with the students, and I feel the pain, and I feel the need, but I also feel sad that students have to do that [protest] in order to make their demands heard,” said Min Zhou, professor of sociology and Asian American studies at UCLA.
She continued: “But they should be taking good care of [themselves] because they are coming to school and they are coming here to get a good education. And they are the next generation of our productive workers in society. So it’s important that they have a good environment to get a good education.”
Graduate students demand better working conditions by negotiating amendments on childcare support, health insurance, guaranteed appointments, class sizes and more that can be seen on the union’s bargaining tracking sheet.
Conditions are strained. For example, a tweet retweeted by the UCLA union branch displayed the heavy workload of graduate students, with one TA who had to teach over 60 students.
Many students are in a precarious position because they want to strike in solidarity with graduate students, many of whom are their teaching assistants. However, many professors still require their students to attend classes and turn in homework assignments, leaving them to decide whether or not to support their peers or continue classes despite academic setbacks.
“I know there’s some people still walking around, but the vibes are just a little off. It’s almost like people are deciding whether to protest or not,” said Patricia Santillán, a UCLA senior studying psychology, who noted that the campus was emptier than usual.
The strike is happening during USC-UCLA rivalry week. Far from being rivals though, UCLA students expressed solidarity with their counterparts at USC.
“There’s definitely a lot of energy on our picket lines, so we hope to also bring that to the rivalry week as well. Our coworkers at USC, graduate workers are also unionizing with UAW. And so hopefully, you know, they will be our union siblings too,” Konishi said.
Expressing the same sentiments, organizer Sam Hunter stated:
“When it’s USC’s turn, UCLA will stand with them.”
UCLA and the president’s office did not respond to requests for clarification on their stance on the graduate strike and the complications that occur because the strike is happening during rivalry week, a time when many alumni visit campus.
