Workers across the University of California rallied on Nov. 20 ahead of upcoming contract negotiations. At UC Santa Barbara, roughly 60 workers and community members equipped with rain jackets and signs rallied at the Arbor walkway.
TA Emma Hanlon said workers are standing together because of their common goals. Alexia Calderon / Daily Nexus
The United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 4811 represents 48,000 academic workers at the University of California, including teaching assistants (TAs) and academic researchers, among others. Contracts for Academic Student Employees (ASEs) are in effect until January and contracts for Research and Public Service Professionals (RPSPs) and Student Services and Advising Professionals (SSAPs) are being negotiated for the first time. This makes it a time for extensive negotiations for UC unions.
Amid the rain, Emma Hanlon, a TA for the religious studies department and UAW 4811 member, began the rally around 4 p.m. Hanlon highlighted several recent UC and union actions, including the reinstated research grants to UC Los Angeles and a petition for international employee rights. She also emphasized that Nov. 20 is the Transgender Day of Remembrance.
“We are here as researchers, as educators and as public servants, because we care not only about our own working conditions, but the future of public education and research and a university that is for everyone,” Hanlon said.
Ellery Wilkie, an undergraduate academic advisor for the ecology, evolution, and marine biology department, said many advisors are “expected to handle crushing workloads” amid high turnover and staff shortages. Wilkie said these working conditions prevent departments from building trust and reliability with their students.
“Does one advisor working two roles sound like the UC is looking out for the [development] of its students? With workloads that are consistently unreasonable, staff turnover becomes inevitable, and every departure creates yet another vacancy that places even more strain for the staff that remain to cover it,” Wilkie said. “I love my job. I love working here with the students, staff and faculty at UCSB, and I love living in this beautiful city, but with the way things stand, this cannot be a long-term reality for me.”
Roughly 60 workers and community members rallied at the Arbor walkway. Alexia Calderon / Daily Nexus
Before introducing the next speaker, Hanlon said workers from these various units are standing together because of their common goals of living wages, job security, improved job retention, stronger protections for international workers and support for intergenerational care.
“Today, we send a message to the UC administration that our RPSPs, SSAPs and ASEs are standing together in solidarity, and we will not be divided,” Hanlon said.
The next speaker, Lee Einhorn, an RPSP at UC San Francisco, began by acknowledging that UC administrators were not present at the rally. He said that recent layoffs have left his workplace short-staffed.
“On Labor Day of this year, the very day that our unit was certified as a union, they laid off hundreds of us … The resulting understaffing means that my colleagues and I are working six to seven days a week. We’re working nine to 10 hours a day. There’s no breaks. We’re told we can’t take vacation,” Einhorn said.
Salvador Escalante, a TA in the philosophy department, said that one of his bosses told him that TAs “do lousy work” because they’re invested in their school work. Escalante also alleged that the boss told him staff and advisors don’t deserve the same protections as academic student workers, postdoctoral candidates and researchers since they are “a different kind of worker.”
“I think it is the bosses that do not understand how things work,” Escalante said. “Because of us, [the] UC remains a world leader in scientific research, engineering and education.”
Escalante also discussed rights for international employees and ways the UC can support its workers. He demanded that the UC provide legal and financial support for immigration-related emergencies and that universities not let Immigration and Customs Enforcement on campus without a warrant.
“I am not safe in the streets. I am not safe in the shops. I am barely even safe in my home. I want to be safe in my workplace. I want to see my grandmother [for] Christmas and not wonder if I’ll be able to come back to my life in California,” Escalante said. “I want to do cutting-edge research, and I want to educate my students without a static in the back of my mind telling me that I might lose my job at any moment.”
The group then marched to Storke Tower, chanting, “When workers’ rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back,” among others. Once they arrived, Seneca Ryan, an admissions and student affairs coordinator at UCSB’s Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, discussed recent contract negotiations.
After about an hour, the group marched to Storke Tower, chanting, “When workers’ rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back,” among others. Alexia Calderon / Daily Nexus
“I’d rather not be here standing out, calling out UC for these indignities, but only just yesterday, as you heard, UC proposed an article that offered us 3% raise next year and 2% for the next three years. Does that sound like a serious proposal to you?” Ryan said. “Let’s be crystal clear, fair and stable pay is not a luxury.”
Lastly, Alejandro Quevedo, a graduate student researcher in the electrical and computer engineering department, reiterated the bargaining team’s goals and emphasized the UC’s response to federal actions on higher education.
“So far, what we’ve seen from them is a cowardly attempt to straddle the line between rights for the workers and destruction at the hands of the federal government and the cuts to higher education research,” Quevedo said. “It is time for the UC to make a choice, make a plan and stop burying their heads in the sand as an alternative to protecting the workers [who] make the UC function as a world-class university and research institute.”
The next bargaining session for ASEs is Dec. 8. As the rally ended and the rain continued to pour, attendees chanted, “Rain or shine, we hold the line.”
