SUBSCRIBE FOR $1/WEEK

University of California
Academic Employees Strike
for Higher Pay
In one of the nation’s biggest strikes in
recent years, teaching assistants,
researchers and other workers walked off
the job Monday, forcing some classes to be
canceled.

Give this article Read in app

Academic workers on the U.C. Berkeley campus went

on strike on Monday to seek better wages and working
conditions. Jim Wilson/The New York Times

By Shawn Hubler

Nov. 14, 2022 Updated 3:42 p.m. ET

Sign Up for the Education Briefing From

preschool to grad school, get the latest
U.S. education news. Get it sent to your
inbox.

SACRAMENTO — Tens of thousands of

academic workers across the University of
California system walked out on Monday in
one of the nation’s largest strikes in recent
years, as teaching assistants, researchers
and other university employees called for
significant pay increases in the face of
rising housing costs.

The walkout, the latest in a wave of union

activity in a booming labor market, covers
nearly 48,000 unionized campus employees
at the prestigious public university system.
Classes were disrupted, research slowed
and office hours canceled as thousands of
workers picketed at campuses from San
Diego to Berkeley. Some faculty canceled
lectures in sympathy with the strikers or
shifted instruction to Zoom to avoid
crossing picket lines in the largely pro-
labor state.

The university system has said its 10

campuses, where nearly 300,000 students
are enrolled, would remain open and that
instruction and operations would continue.
But the students and employees involved,
who are represented by the United
Automobile Workers, make up a core work
force in classrooms and labs throughout
the university system, where most
campuses are only a few weeks away from
final examinations. The unions involved
have not set an end date.

“We’re the ones who perform the majority

of the teaching, and we’re the ones who
perform the majority of the research,” said
Rafael Jaime, a doctoral candidate at the
University of California, Los Angeles, who
is president of U.A.W. Local 2865, which
represents some 19,000 teaching assistants,
tutors and other classroom workers.

“We’re the backbone of the university,” he

said, “and I have a hard time seeing how
operations are going to be maintained with
us on the picket line.”

Graduate students at universities across

the country have long been integral to
higher education, advising students,
teaching classes, grading exams and
papers, and staffing major research
projects and labs. In recent years, however,
concerted efforts to increase pay and
improve often insecure working conditions
have gained traction, especially as wages
have risen in other sectors during a hot,
post-pandemic labor market.

Along with higher wages, workers are demanding more

reimbursement for public transit, additional child care
subsidies, expanded health care for dependents and
other benefits. Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Encouraged by polls showing popular

support for organized labor reaching its
highest point since the mid-1960s, unions
this year have used their bargaining power
to make inroads at high-profile companies
such as Amazon and Starbucks. According
to the U.A.W., the strike at the University of
California is the largest university-based
labor action in U.S. history.

Paula Voos, a professor in Rutgers School

of Management and Labor Relations, said
the current economy is ripe for labor
activism.

“If you go back in labor history, the

economy at a time like the present has
often been a time of high strikes,” Dr. Voos
said. “It’s the peak of the business cycle,
low unemployment, high inflation,
businesses are worrying about the next
downturn, layoffs are starting, we’re not in
a recession yet. But we’re worried about it
and business is cutting back and saying
no.”

More on California
Jaywalking Law: California has had one of
the strictest jaywalking laws in the
nation. Starting Jan. 1, that will no longer be
the case.

Bullet Train to Nowhere: Construction of the

state’s high-speed rail system, America’s
most ambitious infrastructure project, has
become a multi-billion-dollar nightmare.

A Piece of Black History Destroyed: Lincoln

Heights — a historically Black community in
a predominantly white, rural county in
Northern California — endured for decades.
Then came the Mill fire.

Warehouse Moratorium: As warehouse

construction balloons nationwide, residents
in communities both rural and urban have
pushed back. In California’s Inland Empire,
the anger has turned to widespread action.

Three years ago, a “wildcat” strike at the

University of California, Santa Cruz —
conducted without the backing of the union
that represents the workers statewide —
ended with the firing of more than 70
graduate students who had refused to turn
in fall grades as part of the labor action.
Most were eventually reinstated. This year,
in contrast, unionized graduate students
and adjunct professors have negotiated
contracts at Columbia University and New
York University.

Dr. Voos cautioned, however, that the

oversupply of graduate students, especially
in the humanities, also puts universities in
a position of strength in labor negotiations.
“The students are vulnerable because they
need recommendations from professors,
they’re afraid for their future, the academic
labor market is not very good right now,”
she said.

The University of California workers, many

of whom have been negotiating with the
U.C. system for more than a year, are
demanding that their salaries more than
double in some cases, particularly to
address the cost of housing. The U.C.
campuses lie in some of the most expensive
housing markets in the nation, not just in
the Bay Area and Los Angeles, but coastal
enclaves such as Santa Barbara, Santa
Cruz and Irvine. Even subsidized campus
housing costs in some areas are
significantly more expensive than market
rents in much of the country.

Campus-area housing has long been a

policy concern, vexing state lawmakers
and inciting town-gown legal battles. In a
union survey, 92 percent of graduate
student workers said housing consumed
more than a third of their income. For 40
percent of them, it was more than half.

Mr. Jaime, 33, who teaches an introductory

Shakespeare class at U.C.L.A., said he
could not afford an apartment in the
Westwood neighborhood surrounding the
campus. Instead, he lives in downtown Los
Angeles, more than 15 miles away, sharing
rent with two roommates. Even so, he said,
the $1,600 he pays for rent each month eats
up half of his paycheck, not counting the
costs of his commute to campus via bicycle,
light rail and bus.

The workers are also demanding more

reimbursement for public transit,
additional child care subsidies, expanded
health care for dependents and other
benefits.

In a statement, the university system said

it recognized the “important and highly
valued contributions” to its teaching and
research mission made by the workers and
that it had provided “fair responses” on
issues including pay, housing and a
“respectful work environment.”

“We have listened carefully to U.A.W.

priorities with an open mind and a genuine
willingness to compromise,” the statement
said, adding that “many tentative
agreements” on issues such as health and
safety had been reached.

But major differences remain. Workers

want salaries to be set high enough that no
employees would have to spend more than
30 percent of their monthly pay on
housing; the U.C. system has noted that
housing is an issue for workers throughout
California, and that it already provides a
limited amount of subsidized housing for
graduate student workers that is priced at
up to 25 percent below market rates.

Union officials say that the university

system also has violated labor law nearly
two dozen times in the course of
negotiations, dealing directly with certain
groups of workers and changing certain
working conditions without going through
collective bargaining. These unfair labor
practices, officials say, triggered the strike.

“The university needs to bargain fairly,”

said Neal Sweeney, president of the U.A.W.
bargaining unit that represents academic
researchers and postdoctoral scholars. “If
they do that, we think we can reach a
transformative agreement.”

The university system has denied any

illegal action and has called on the unions
to stay at the bargaining table. “We are
committed to continuing to negotiate in
good faith and reaching full agreements as
soon as possible,” the statement from the
University of California said.

On Monday, the strike appeared to have

created significant disruptions. At U.C.
Berkeley, picketers demonstrated on a
campus that seemed nearly emptied by
canceled classes. At U.C. San Diego, a
nanotechnology research lab that normally
employs about a dozen doctoral, post-
doctoral and undergraduate students was
closed.

At U.C.L.A., sections of Sociology 101,

architecture and other popular
undergraduate classes were canceled as
the voices of hundreds of strikers boomed
throughout the sprawling campus: “U.C.,
U.C., you can’t hide! We can see your
greedy side!”

Enrique Olivares Pesante, a fourth-year

doctoral candidate in English at U.C.L.A.
who was picketing in front of the school’s
film building, said he makes $2,500 per
month before taxes, and pays more than
half of that in rent for his graduate housing.
Most teaching assistants make far less, he
said, adding: “It came to this because it
was untenable.”

At U.C. Berkeley, Chaka Tellem, 21, the

student body president and a senior,
sympathized with the strike even though
his classes in macroeconomics and African
American history had been canceled. “We
are on a campus that recognizes,
historically and to this day, the importance
of collective action, the importance of
strikes and nonviolent direct action,” he
said.

Meanwhile, Anthony Huo, 19, said he had

his hands full just trying to figure out
whether his next class would be meeting.

“I think it’s happening,” he said, hustling

through the fall air across the storied
Berkeley campus. “Maybe? I don’t know.
I’ll try.”
Soumya Karlamangla, Holly Secon, Anemona
Hartocollis and Noam Scheiber contributed reporting.

© 2022 The New York Times Company

NYTCo Contact Us Accessibility Work with us Advertise

T Brand Studio Your Ad Choices Privacy Policy Terms of Service
Terms of Sale Site Map Canada International Help
Subscriptions

You're almost out of free articles.