Grad employees resume work, vow to strike again

Monday, November 25, 1996

SAGE:

Though TAs still aren’t recognized by the university, last week
deemed a successBy John Digrado and A.J. Harwin

Daily Bruin Staff

Wrapping up their five-day sojourn from their classrooms and
laboratories, members of the Student Association of Graduate
Employees (SAGE/UAW) declared their week-long strike a success, and
voted to hold another strike within the academic year if the group
is not soon formally recognized by the university.

About 2,400 strikers on three UC campuses will resume work
Monday despite the university’s failure to recognize the union.

University administrators, on the other hand, have continued to
express their relative indifference toward the union and its goal
of recognition as a collective bargaining unit. While the
administration is somewhat willing to sit down and talk with the
organization about the issues, it continued to refuse the group
collective bargaining recognition ­ the only end to which SAGE
organizers would call off a strike.

"I think (the strike) was a great success," said SAGE Executive
Board Member John Medearis. "It demonstrated that SAGE and its
sister unions can mount a credible strike, and that they use that
power in moderation in the hope of gaining recognition without a
longer and more significant disruption of education and
research."

Chancellor Charles Young agreed that the administration is open
to meeting with the organization, but made no indication that the
university intends to recognize the group in the near future.

In a challenge to the law, SAGE brought their case before Public
Employee Relations Board Judge James Tamm, who recommended the
university grant academic student employees collective bargaining
rights.

The university appealed that decision earlier this month, the
outcome of which is still in deliberation.

Pending the outcome of that appeal, he said, the administration
will continue to deny the group collective bargaining rights.

Medearis said that while SAGE would be open to meeting with the
administration, details behind Young’s statement leave much open
for interpretation.

"My initial reaction is that if (Young) wants to talk to us as
SAGE, we would be interested in talking to him," Medearis said. "Of
course, our goal is to engage in collective bargaining so that the
results of any negotiations are a binding contract that both
parties adhere to and not merely some loose understanding that
later can be voided."

In a vote taken last Wednesday, 81 percent of the organization’s
members agreed to take to the picket lines once again sometime
before the end of the current academic year, escalating the
pressure on the university to recognize SAGE, strike organizers
said.

"(The vote) sends a message that while this strike was only a
week long, we fully intend to escalate pressure on the
administration if we do not achieve recognition," Medearis said.
"This was merely a warning, as it were."

The next action will likely be longer and employ more disruptive
tactics, they added, and will take aim once again at an
administration that members feel is unsympathetic with their
plight.

While SAGE members have a "First Amendment right to do what
they’re doing, they also have an obligation to see to it that
undergraduate education is not affected," Young said, adding that
the impact of the strike on the university was negligible.

"If the university is told beyond any chance of a future appeal
(to recognize SAGE)," the university would recognize the union.
However, Young noted, academic student employees are explicitly
exempted by the Higher Education Employee-Employer Relations Act
(HEERA), giving the university no reason to recognize the
organization.

In a letter sent home to all academic student employees, Young
warned that they could be subject to dismissal by striking.

"By striking, a person voluntarily declines to fulfill the
contractual obligations accepted with the appointment to the
position," Young said. "Under a standing policy of the Board of
Regents, a person with one of these appointments who fails to meet
with his or her classes during the period of a strike is ineligible
for compensation for the period of unauthorized absence and may, in
appropriate cases, even be liable to termination of
appointment."

While the letter angered many of those involved with the strike,
teaching assistants were more encouraged by the fact that
administration was taking the organization seriously.

"The fact that Chancellor Young sent threatening letters home to
all the TAs is borderline-illegal for him to do, and it’s a pretty
serious measure for him to take," said Mike Miller, a lead
organizer for SAGE.

"So obviously he’s taken (the strike) pretty seriously. Clearly,
it’s on his radar screen, and he’s going to have to deal with
it."

GENEVIEVE LIANG

Graduate students picketed in front of Murphy last
Wednesday.