UC-wide TA strike garners campus support

Wednesday, November 25, 1998

UC-wide TA strike garners campus support

SAGE: Graduate student union endorsed by USAC but won’t confirm
plans

By Michael Weiner

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Academic student employees on eight University of California
campuses, including UCLA, will go on strike next Tuesday, according
to numerous sources throughout the UC system.

Organizers for the Student Association of Graduate Employees/
United Auto Workers (SAGE/UAW), the union that represents teaching
assistants, readers, research assistants and tutors at UCLA,
declined to confirm that the planned strike will begin on Tuesday
for strategic reasons.

"They’re talking about hiring replacement workers, so we want to
give them as little advance notice as possible," said SAGE
organizer Mike Miller.

In the meantime, SAGE has received endorsements from several
groups, including the Undergraduate Students Association Council
(USAC), which voted to support striking academic student employees
in its meeting Tuesday night.

"For undergraduates, it’s really important because the
environments we learn in are the working conditions of our TAs,"
said USAC external vice-president Liz Geyer.

University administrators said they have not ruled out the
possibility of hiring replacement workers.

"We will do everything within our power to ensure that our
undergraduates complete their courses and receive their grades,"
said UC president Richard Atkinson in a letter sent to the
university community on Tuesday.

Support for the unions has also come from the University of
California Students Association, the National Association of
Graduate-Professional Students and the American Association of
University Professors.

As rumors spread about the strike, many teaching assistants have
alerted their undergraduate students that they will not hold
discussion sections next week. Some have arranged to meet with
undergraduates off campus.

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