Around 120 graduate student workers affiliated with United Auto Workers Local 872 rallied Wednesday afternoon to pressure the University to maintain promises made in the bargaining agreement between the two parties last year.
The union alleges that the University has not provided its members – teaching assistants, research assistants, assistant lecturers and fellows – hundreds of thousands of dollars in childcare and dependent assistance, previously agreed to in the union contract. UAW Local 872 members also noted that the University changed the academic calendar without consulting the union, which affected paid time off previously agreed to in their 2023 agreement – going from six weeks off to three.
“The goal is to not just create a greater consciousness about how the University is disrespecting our union and graduate student workers in the process, but also to come up with a way forward for upholding our union contracts and enforcing our rights,” said Daniel Delgado, a fourth-year PhD candidate in history and the union’s sergeant-at-arms.
Annenberg Media asked the University for its response to the allegations made by the union. In response, the University’s emailed statement said only that, “The university continues to work in good faith with the union and follows the terms of the contract.”
UAW Local 872 – formerly known as the Graduate Student Worker Organizing Committee – came to an agreement with the University last November after a strike authorization and more than seven months of negotiations between USC and the union. The first contract between graduate student workers and the administration included wage increases, bonuses for graduate workers and protections for harassment and discrimination.
Union members and its supporters stood in front of Shumway Fountain and marched toward the EF Hutton Park and Amphitheatre at 1 p.m., setting up a mass membership meeting to discuss the grievances the union has with the University. While marching over, union members chanted phrases including “We’ve got the power, union power” and “Stand up, fight back.”
Once the meeting got underway in the amphitheater, union membership heard speeches from members on the effects the University’s policy changes will have on its membership. Testimonials included those from students with children who must arrange separate childcare opportunities after being denied the previously negotiated childcare subsidy to international students rearranging travel plans after the University changed holiday time off from 25 calendar days to seven.
The change to the academic calendar was made in October by the University without consulting the union.
One student in the union, who was not named, went from planning to go home to India for his wedding day to now being scheduled to work on that day, said Connor Sauceda, a fifth-year PhD student in civil and environmental engineering and one of the union’s head stewards.
Sauceda said this change also affects international students who may spend 24 hours traveling home, only to have four days to rest, spend time with family and recharge before returning to campus – all at the cost of thousands of dollars.
“USC likes to boast its number of international students,” Sauceda said. “But for example, if you are from a place like China or India or Iran, it takes a long time to go home, and flights are really expensive, so usually people don’t go home until they have time off for the winter holiday. So by making this change, we specifically make it an equity issue.”
After speeches, members split into groups to discuss specific issues in their departments and how childcare subsidies and holiday time have affected their studies and time at USC. Concerns raised were then echoed in a resolution that was unscrolled on the amphitheater stage for the union’s members to sign.
The resolution listed UAW Local 872′s frustrations with the University’s changes to the holiday calendar, childcare and dependent healthcare subsidies and the allegation that USC has failed to support graduate student parents.
Kurt Woolford, an author of the resolution, said drafting their concerns in writing to be delivered to the University was a step to ensure that the union’s membership is heard by administrators.
“We’re trying to show that we are really united in the same goals,” Woolford said. “Whether we study history or whether we’re in a STEM lab or whether we study media and communications, we’re all affected in the same way, and so having everyone here come together in solidarity to support all the other workers on campus is really the key.”
The resolution states that if USC does not “provide a viable resolution by winter break” that the union will reassess how to approach their break and how to “act in accordance” with their collective action. The union has not filed an unfair labor practice with the U.S. Federal Labor Relations Authority.