SAGE strike ends, no word from university

SAGE strike ends, no word from university

UC Berkeley, San Diego unions also organize walkouts

By Laryssa Kreiselmeyer

The grad union’s two-day strike ended yesterday without any
significant action or word from the UCLA administration.

Currently, UCLA’s human resources division is assessing the
number of university employees who did decide to strike Wednesday
and Thursday. As of now, the administration has yet to determine if
any action is going to be taken against employees who participated
in the walkout, said Kathleen Komar, associate dean of the graduate
division.

"It doesn’t seem like this has severely crippled the teaching
activities on campus. It’s hard to tell. We’re still trying to
assess the impact it had on our teaching program ­ that’s our
main concern," Komar said.

At UCLA, sympathetic graduates and undergraduates stayed off
campus in support of the Student Association of Graduate Employees
(SAGE) during their walkout. In addition, "Students First"
candidates in their first day of undergraduate government
campaigning decided to forgo on-campus exposure to support union
members on the picket lines.

However, demands for unionization are not limited to SAGE or to
UCLA. Earlier in April, student employees at Yale University walked
out for a week in demand of union recognition.

Already, student employee unions have formed at the Universities
of Oregon, Massachusetts, Florida, Wisconsin and Rutgers
University.

"We’re in the same boat as SAGE," said Molly Rhodes, sixth-year
literature graduate student and executive board member of the
Association of Student Employees (ASE) at UC San Diego.

San Diego was the only other UC campus that planned a walkout on
the same days as UCLA’s union. At UCSD, undergraduate students have
been "very supportive," Rhodes said.

"We are not only worried about our working conditions but how
these affect the quality of undergraduate education. As our working
conditions deteriorate, so does the quality of their education,"
said Kate Burns, chief steward for ASE.

This week at San Diego, professors cancelled classes and
students wore armbands or joined picket lines in support of ASE,
which began recognition talks with the UCSD administration in
1992.

In preparation for this week’s walkout, Rhodes and other ASE
members collected 500 signatures of support. She estimated that 250
participated in the walkout.

At UC Berkeley, the Association of Graduate Student Employees
(AGSE) conducted a walkout in 1989 on the Berkeley campus, gaining
health insurance and fee waivers for all members. But the partial
waivers are not guaranteed and granted on a yearly basis, said Mark
Glickman, AGSE member and third-year graduate economics
student.

Often students don’t know until August whether the waivers will
be in place for the next year. As a result, they are required to
fully pay all their fees in July to avoid late bills, he said. If
the waivers remain in place, the students get their money back for
that year, he added.

It was the "hindrance" of non-unionization that led Glickman to
join AGSE two years ago. And the financial and educational issues
that he must deal with as a graduate student have made him stay to
participate in this week’s Berkeley protest as well as other
events, Glickman said.

In 1992, the Berkeley union was also involved in a two-week
session of picketing. In addition to that, TAs voluntarily stayed
out of the classroom for roughly a month, Glickman said.

In the same year, a court decision stated that the Berkeley
administration must settle contract negotiations with readers,
tutors and acting instructors, a group that is distinct from TAs,
said Glickman.

"It’s the only public acquiescence (the administration) has
shown in awhile," he said.

On Wednesday the Berkeley union held informational picketing in
departments across the campus and a public rally on Thursday in
front of Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien’s office.

Echoing the picketing cries of SAGE protestors, AGSE members
also desire administrative recognition as a collective bargaining
power.

"We want to work under a contract. The university should engage
in good faith collective bargaining with AGSE/UAW. A majority of
graduate student employees have chosen AGSE/UAW to represent them,"
said Michael Ash, Berkeley graduate economics student.

Most of this semester’s work for Berkeley union supporters,
consisted of making presentations to undergraduates in order to put
"public pressure on the university" and preparing for yesterday’s
200 student rally, Glickman said.

Area labor leaders and UC academics addressed the rally at UC
Berkeley. Assemblyman Tom Bates, D-14th District, also sent a
statement of support to the students.

"Our goal is to communicate to undergraduates that our working
conditions are their learning conditions. Contract negotiations are
the only forum for us to discuss the quality of working
conditions," said AGSE member Roger Berkowitz.

This week, the campuses of UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz
held events in support of the two-day work stoppages at Berkeley,
UCLA and San Diego.