Over 48,000 academic employees across the 10 campuses of the University of California, on Monday, embarked on a strike action to demand for better pay and benefits in what union leaders see as the largest strike action in the history of the prestigious public university.
The unions which represents thousands of teaching assistants, researchers, post doctoral scholars, tutors and graders, said in a statement that the vast majority of members turned out at picket lines starting at 8am to press home for significant pay increases and child-care subsidies to afford the cost of living in cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego and Berkeley, where housing costs are soaring.
The strike threatened to disrupt classroom and laboratory instruction across the statewide university system just weeks ahead of final exams in December with dome instructors telling some students classes were on hold indefinitely, a union member said.
“The strike will only end when UC ends its unfair labor practices and starts bargaining in good faith,” the President of UAW Local 5810, Neal Sweeney, representing about 12,000 UC postdoctoral and academic researchers, said.
While addressing reporters, Sweeney said the unionized workers, represented by four bargaining units, are seeking pay that will lift workers out of “rent burden,” which is defined by the federal government as having to pay at least a third of your salary toward rent.
A statement issued by the University of California, however, said it had entered the talks with a “genuine willingness to compromise,” adding that “many tentative agreements” on issues such as health and safety had been reached.
“UC’s primary goal in these negotiations is multiyear agreements that recognize these employees’ important and highly valued contributions to UC’s teaching and research mission with fair pay, quality health and family-friendly benefits, and a supportive and respectful work environment,” the statement said.
