Pirate's Cove

You know, these graduate students could have taken jobs elsewhere than the university. Heck, they could have gotten outside jobs and earned. But, no, they Demanded the college take care of them. While not working

UC Santa Cruz fires 54 graduate students participating in months-long strike

The University of California, Santa Cruz, issued termination letters on Friday to 54 graduate students who have been waging a months-long strike for a cost-of-living-adjustment amid soaring rents.

The firings came as graduate students at the University of California, Davis, and University of California, Santa Barbara, began their own cost-of-living strikes in solidarity. One of their demands is that all UC Santa Cruz graduate workers who participated in strike activities be restored to full employment status.

The 54 UC Santa Cruz graduate students who received termination letters on Friday are just a fraction of the 233 graduate student instructors and teaching assistants who have refused to submit nearly 12,000 grades from the fall quarter since December.

This month, the students’ grading strike expanded, as teaching assistants refused all teaching duties and research assistants refused additional work. Some classes and office hours have been canceled because of the strike.

The students are striking for a $1,412-a-month cost-of-living adjustment, which they say they desperately need amid a growing housing crisis in California. Most students are spending between 5o% and 70% of their $2,434-a-month salary on rent, some forced to live in substandard apartments with many roommates in order to stretch their dollars.

Now, try this at your job: refuse to work while demanding more money. What happens? You’re promoted to customer, right?

The graduate students are represented by United Auto Workers Local 2865, which negotiated a contract in 2018 that included a no-strike clause: meaning the current strike, known as a “wildcat strike”, has been taken without the union’s approval.

Huh what? Auto workers union?

“Teaching assistants who choose to withhold grades or refuse to teach are in violation of that contract,” Gordon said, adding that such actions “unfairly impact undergraduate students while doing nothing to further the conversation on how to address the challenges of the rising cost of living, with which all students and employees across UC must contend”.

Have fun trying to get jobs with other colleges after this. And, won’t look good when they try for private sector jobs. Don’t like the pay? Go elsewhere. Don’t like conditions? Go elsewhere. It is fun to see these uber-Progressive colleges crack down, eh?