SAGE focuses on democracy

SAGE focuses on democracy

By John Medearis

It is important to acknowledge two seriously misleading
statements attributed to Stanley McKnight, assistant vice
chancellor for human resources in the Oct. 25 Daily Bruin.

I write on behalf of the organizing committee of SAGE (the
Student Association of Graduate Employees). SAGE is the
organization that is seeking collective bargaining rights for TAs,
research assistants, readers, tutors and acting instructors. More
than 3,300 members of SAGE ­ graduate students and academic
student employees ­ stand behind our efforts to get UCLA to
"recognize" us and begin bargaining.

In the story "Grad students protest for union," McKnight said
that "the university does not want to replace the election process"
for choosing a union. This belief would only be relevant if for
some reason SAGE did want to "replace" the union election process.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Last year, a majority of
TAs, RAs, readers, tutors and acting instructors signed membership
cards signifying their choice of SAGE as their collective
bargaining representative. That constitutes a legally valid and
democratic show of support for the union.

SAGE, however, would welcome the opportunity to hold an election
that would demonstrate beyond any doubt that we have the support of
academic student employees. Indeed, at our meeting with Chancellor
Young on Oct. 24, we proposed that the question of representation
be put to a legally binding secret ballot election, run by the
state labor agency, PERB. If a fair election is the question, this
is surely the answer. The offer remains open. We await a
response.

The Bruin also attributes McKnight for claiming that if UCLA
recognized SAGE as a union, graduate students would lose the right
to elect union representation. We are sure that, as an expert in
labor relations, McKnight knows better. Under state law,
recognition of SAGE could never occur without a democratic
selection process ­ either a card drive (like the one we’ve
had) or an election. To suggest that employees can lose such rights
is to engage in scare tactics. Moreover, should SAGE gain
recognition, academic student employees themselves would elect
SAGE’s leadership and determine its actions.

We have faith in The Bruin’s accuracy, but we nevertheless hold
out the hope that McKnight was misunderstood or misquoted.

Graduate student Medearis is a member of the SAGE Organizing
Committee.