The UAW, a labor union started in Detroit to represent the rights of autoworkers, is leading a strike 2,400 miles away involving some 48,000 academic workers in 10 University of California cities — including Berkeley, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara.þþThe strike, believed to be the biggest organized labor action in the U.S. this year and the biggest in history involving higher education, began early on Nov. 14 after contract talks stalled on improving wages, job security and workplace protections.þþIt exceeds the size of the widespread UAW strike on General Motors that involved 46,000 workers at 55 sites in 10 states just three years ago and it clashed with final exams, forced some classes to go from in-person to virtual, and stopped laboratory research.þþAnd it shows the potential influence the UAW has on shaping worker benefits well beyond traditional autoworkers.þþÿThis is one of the most striking examples of a resurgence of the labor movement that we’ve seen,ÿ said Harley Shaiken, an emeritus professor at the University of California-Berkeley who specializes in labor and the global economy. ÿIt's a bit like autoworkers sitting down at Flint 85 years ago, except on a college campus today. Workers then and student workers today, seeking to improve their lives through solidarity.ÿþþThe work these strikers do for the university and their impact is not trivial: “They perform experiments, write research grant proposals, and generate creative ideas that push the boundaries of their fields. Their hard work and dedication is a major reason why the school system received $3.7 billion in federal research contracts and grant revenue in fiscal year 2020,ÿ U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, D-Irvine, said in a 2021 letter to the UC president expressing support for the academic workers.þþUAW officials pointed to past court battles that reflect a long-term union investment in protecting rights on college campuses.þþRay Curry, president of the UAW, told the Free Press in a statement Friday: ÿOur union has been a part of the fight for academic workers to have the legal right to bargain since the 1980s. We have laid the groundwork to establish that right through numerous court cases and strategic campaigns. We will continue to lead in this sector as we bargain innovative contracts that set the standard for workers in higher education.”þþThe intensity of this fight cannot be overstated, said Shaiken, whose grandfather, a Russian immigrant, moved from Ohio to Detroit to earn $5 a day at Ford’s Highland Park plant and spent most of his 33 years on the line at The Rouge.þþÿWhen they had a strike vote, over 36,000 voted, which is very high as a percentage, and 98% voted to strike. That kind of an outpouring is very significant,ÿ Shaiken said of academic workers at UC. ÿWe’re seeing history being made, given the size of this strike and its location ... that will leave a lasting mark.ÿþþAfter 15 days on strike, the UAW units representing about 12,000 postdoctoral scholars and academic researchers reached tentative five-year agreements with the university. They vote whether to ratify Monday through Friday this week.þþ“We are proud to have reached agreements that address the soaring cost of living, and reflect the value of our contributions at UC,” said Neal Sweeney, 46, of Davis, who is president of UAW Local 5810.þþThe UAW-represented academic workers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Davis, Sacramento, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Riverside, Irvine and Merced do much of the research and teaching at the University of California.þþUC has more than 800 research centers, institutes, laboratories, and programs that include five medical centers and three Department of Energy National Laboratories. Areas of study range from human cognition and the development of machine learning to the creation of disease-resistant crops and mitigation strategies for climate change, according to the UC website.þþThe academic workers on strike over the past three weeks have been postdoctoral scholars who do professional research, teaching assistants, academic student employees, graduate student researchers, academic researchers, readers, tutors and others.þþÿWe're all bargaining to make the university more fair and equitable,ÿ Sweeney told the Free Press. ÿThis is about making the university welcoming for working parents with more paid leave, child care benefits, job security.ÿþþThe UAW has taken great pride in bargaining as a united front despite having separate contracts because there's strength in numbers, he said. ÿClasses are being canceled. Labs are shut down,ÿ he said.þþSweeney, a Birmingham, Michigan, native whose father worked on a GM assembly line in college, is both a postdoctoral scholar and an academic researcher in Santa Cruz, studying how stem cells may be used in late-stage eye diseases such as macular degeneration.
Source: freep.com
