TAs to strike

11,000 UC assistants, tutors and others expected to walk out over labor practices deemed unfair.
By David Downs
South Coast Beacon

Just in time for the administration and grading of final exams, UCSB’s teaching assistants as well as most TAs, readers and tutors across the University of California will go on strike over increased fees, decreased pay, more work and other issues.

Final grades could be delayed, but there is no way of gauging exactly how campuses will be affected when 11,000 TAs are expected to walk out Dec. 4. According to UAW Local 2865 spokesperson Beth Rayfield, the TAs are striking because of numerous unfair labor practices.

“The length of the strike is really up to the university. We’re prepared to stay out for the rest of the term,” she said.

Teaching assistants, readers and tutors do about 60 percent of undergraduate teaching at UC schools, said Rayfield.

TAs have been facing massive jumps in the cost of tuition combined with decreased TA positions at schools. The result is more work for the cash-strapped, under-appreciated workhorses of public education, said UCSB Graduate Student Association external vice president Allison Borek.

“Everyone is unhappy all around,” she said.

The university said in statement Nov. 28 that the UAW charges of unfair labor practices will fail the scrutiny of the courts and that TAs have it better at UC than they would in most public institutions of higher education.

“Since a hearing may not happen for several months — if at all, since charges are often settled or withdrawn once the parties reach agreement — some unions use this tactic to attempt to vilify an employer, gain public sympathy, and pressure and employer into agreeing to union demands,” said the statement.

The UAW is tight-lipped about the details of the bargaining disagreement, said Rayfield.

Borek said grad students have little idea of what’s actually going on in Berkely bargaining rooms and exactly what they are striking over. They thought the strike was supposed to start Monday Dec. 1, but it was delayed until Dec.4 and she doesn’t know why.

“It has caused some difficulty among the student body,” she said. “Educated graduate students are interested in knowing what they are supporting, but the officials are concerned if they give away certain information, they lose bargaining tools that could have been more effective if they were kept private.”

Tuition has jumped thousands of dollars, class sizes are increasing, and educational quality continues to erode under deep budget cuts by former Gov. Gray Davis and proposed cuts from present Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The net effect effect will be decreased enrollment of poor people, lower quality education for those who get in, zero academic outreach to possible first generation college students, and worse working conditions for UC employees, said Borek.

“What I’m hoping is that people start seeing the larger issue, which is things are going to be very different if the governor’s budget passes with the cuts to UC,” she said. “There’s this very immediate, shortsighted understanding of how this affects people. If nothing’s done, the effect is also going to be very immediate.”