About 48,000 student employees quit their jobs on Nov. 14 to demand higher wages and better benefits. The employees, represented by United Auto Workers Local 5810, say they have no choice but to go on strike to demand the pay raises needed to keep up with skyrocketing rents in cities like Berkeley, San Diego and Los Angeles.
Last week, university officials agreed to a 29 percent pay hike for postdoctoral staff and academic researchers, who make up about 12,000 of 48,000 workers. The university system has also agreed to provide more family leave, childcare subsidies, and job security.
But postdoctoral staff and researchers have refused to return to work until an agreement is reached for the 36,000 graduate students, teaching assistants, tutors and researchers who are separately negotiating salary increases and benefits. The strike is being followed closely and could have a knock-on effect in schools across the country.
University of California, Berkeley sophomore Janna Nassar said she thinks academic workers should be paid better, but she is growing concerned as the strike continues. She had final review sessions scheduled with her graduate instructor for one of her economics classes before taking her final exam the following week. But now, the 18-year-old has said that's not an option.
Prior to the strike, he said he attended classes for that class three times a week and two discussion sessions with the graduate student instructor. He must complete the course before he can declare an economics major next year.
"This is the hardest thing I've studied in all my semesters here, and I feel least prepared," she said. "It's really disheartening to know that I may have to file late or maybe I won't be able to file economics and have to choose another major."
Susana Sotelo, a UC Berkeley sophomore intending to declare herself a psychology major, said four of her five courses were taught by graduate student instructors or professors. Those classes have been canceled or moved online and made optional. The only class taught by a psychology professor was also moved online, telling students no new material would be taught the rest of the semester to support the strike, he said.
Sotelo, 19, said she is not yet sure how she will be evaluated for her courses, except for her psychology course, which will be considered successful if she turns in her research project. Ironically, his research paper deals with the stress college students experience when choosing a career.
“My one teacher was very understanding. He sent several emails saying that to support the strikers he would not give any compensation and would cancel the discussions," Sotelo said.
The average salary of UC student employees is about $24,000 a year, and many academic workers say they have to skip meals or work extra work to make ends meet on their meager pay.
"The university's offerings to the UAW would place our graduate students and academic employees at the top of the salary scale at top public universities and on par with top private universities," the university said in a statement.
If graduate employees and researchers earn better wages in the UC system, it could spark similar changes at universities that compete with UC or where graduate workers are organizing unions, said Tim Cain, associate professor of higher education at the University of Georgia. "If unions can get close to what they're looking for, that will be an eye-opener," he said, adding that "if conditions change dramatically at UC schools, then the market will change for other schools as well."
Nationwide, 75 percent of academic workers who conduct research in laboratories, libraries and archives and teach undergraduate courses are graduate students, according to Cain.
Cain sees the strike as part of a larger shift in U.S. employment after the pandemic placed a greater burden on workers and called attention to pay inequalities across the country. "We're in a time where there's a lot of work activity among workers who aren't treated well by the wider systems, and I think a number of people working in higher education see themselves as part of that larger disruption," he has declared. . .
It remains to be seen what the effects of the disruption will be on UC college students whose education had already been in disarray due to the pandemic. But for Nassar, who doesn't know if she'll be able to declare herself an economics graduate, the effect seems lasting.
"It's like a breaking point," she said. "It will probably affect us for the rest of our college careers."
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