USC graduate students are preparing to strike if their union demands aren’t met by a new Nov. 28 deadline.
The United Auto Workers’ Graduate Student Worker Organizing Committee (GSWOC) advocates on behalf of employees around campus and is hoping to bargain for a wage increase in upcoming contract negotiations with the school.
This potential strike is motivated by an increased cost-of-living seen across the country, as well as similar demonstrations held throughout the year by unions representing blue-collar workers.
Many graduate students face housing insecurity without an immediate source of income, and University policy prohibits active students from working full-time. These issues are compounded by additional costs that may arise in transportation or medical expenses.
According to GSWOC-USC, the minimum wage that USC graduate student workers receive, $35,700, is less than the Los Angeles County living wage of $44,142. This differs from other top universities like UCLA, whose previous strikes resulted in a minimum wage of $41,688.
Meg Tiller, a PhD candidate and teaching assistant at USC, spoke about her own experiences on the GSWOC-USC Instagram page.
“My experiences here at USC have been difficult in many ways… part of that is just the fact that we aren’t paid a living wage,” Tiller said. “A lot of it is bad housing, but in addition to that, we’re just rent burdened… meaning that rent is over a third of your income.”
University officials have been resistant to increasing the base pay offered to student workers, as they cite the current contract’s benefits of health insurance and partial tuition.
“Graduate student workers put around 54% of their paycheck towards rent on average,” said Tiller. “USC administration has not offered us a living wage for any of their economic packages. The adjustments they are willing to make don’t even meet inflation.”
Recently, 13 L.A. city council members and Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas have announced their support for graduate student workers.
“As the senator representing communities neighboring the University of Southern California, I am writing to express my unwavering support for the graduate students of USC as they negotiate their first contract,” said Smallwood-Cuevas. “Here in Los Angeles and across the State of California, unions play a critical role in empowering workers to collectively bargain for better working conditions and fairer compensation.”
The student union is also aiming to formalize protections against discrimination or harassment during these negotiations, but has yet to reach an agreement with university officials. A potential solution has been offered through a new arbitration process, although nothing has been formally adopted.
Kayla Love, a PhD candidate in the chemistry department, also spoke on the GSWOC-USC Instagram.
“Trying to find a lab was terrible,” Love said. “I had to reach out to 15 different labs to ultimately find a lab that would accept meEven though I could show I could do the experiments, I was told that it probably would still be ‘too hard’ for me.”
The union recently organized a “Last Chance Picket” at the University Park Campus to further emphasize their commitment, but failed to secure the terms of the contract in the most recent negotiations. A “Know Your Rights” town hall is scheduled for Friday in order to prepare workers for the potential strike.
Andrew Stott, dean of USC graduate school, told Annenberg Media in October that USC is “doing everything we can to avert a strike. A strike will be disruptive to everybody; it will be divisive to the community.”
Graduate students aren’t the only ones advocating for better wages — USC bus drivers voted to unionize earlier this year — and faced similar pushback from the university regarding a number of issues. Hotel workers, Hollywood writers with actors, and other chapters of the UAW have all also gone on strike this year in order to secure financial stability.