UC academic student workers to strike on Wednesday

This post was updated Thursday at 2:53 p.m.

University of California teaching assistants, tutors and other academic student union workers will go on strike next Wednesday in solidarity with another UC worker union.

As a result, many Wednesday discussion sections for undergraduate coursework scheduled at UCLA and other campuses could be temporarily canceled, said Cody Trojan, recording secretary for Uniting Academic Workers Local 2865 union.

Unionized teaching assistants will not show up to class to teach their sections, he added. They will hold no office hours and submit no grades for that day, Trojan said.

Members of the UAW 2865 union, which represents more than 12,000 academic student employees on nine UC campuses, voted this week to allow their union leadership to call a strike at a chosen time and date.

The union’s leadership decided to strike in sympathy with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 3299, said Caroline McKusick, a member of the UAW 2865 Joint Council. AFSCME 3299 recently announced it would strike on Nov. 20 to protest alleged threats from the UC in wake of their last strike, among other things.

Trojan, vice president of academic affairs in the Graduate Students Association, said union members likely wanted to strike to protest alleged unfair labor practices. For instance, several weeks ago, the union submitted a complaint to the UC alleging it was withholding information about possible discrimination in UC hiring policies.

He added that when union members voted for the strike, they did not intend to influence the outcome of current collective bargaining negotiations between the union and the UC.

University officials said they are disappointed that UAW 2865 has chosen to strike along with AFSCME, said UC spokeswoman Shelly Meron in a statement.

“We’re in the middle of the academic year, and this will negatively impact our students and their educations,” Meron said. “We don’t believe a strike is the answer to these labor disputes.”

Meron said the UC negotiated with UAW 2865 for several days earlier this month and has more negotiating days scheduled for the future. The University has negotiated with UAW 2865 in good faith since last June, Meron added.

“We’re making slow progress at the negotiation table, and we hope to reach an agreement with UAW very soon,” Meron said in the statement.

UC President Janet Napolitano recently announced she would allocate $5 million to support graduate students.

Compiled by Kristen Taketa, Bruin senior staff.