UAW strikes tentative agreement with University of California

PHOTO: UC Davis students and staff protest on 1st Street for better graduate student wages.

By Stella Maze

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff––

After weeks of protests from the United Auto Workers (UAW) on UC campuses, a tentative agreement has been made between the union and the California university system. 

This agreement was made on December 16th of 2022 after weeks of protests throughout various UC campuses. 

“We’re here to get better wages,” said a UC Davis graduate student working as a teaching assistant who preferred to remain nameless. 

The biggest complaint from graduate students and staff across UC campuses is unfair wages for graduate students who work as TAs. 

“My TAs do most of the grading and more hands-on teaching in my experience,” UC Santa Cruz undergraduate student Hazel George said. 

According to UC website’s official release of the agreement, graduate student researchers and academic student employees will receive a pay increase by October of 2024 if the proposal is approved. 

“Graduate students often have to carry extra employment in order to make enough to make ends meet,” UC Davis associate professor of design Jiayi Young said. 

Young said that it is typical for graduate students at UC Davis to carry a 20-hour work week on top of full-time academics.  

Both graduate and undergraduate classes have been severely affected by the demonstrations. Young as well as many other professors had to cancel classes while making significant alterations to others. 

Young canceled a session with one of her classes in solidarity with the strike. Her other classes were affected also but she worked with the graduate students she taught to accommodate their schedules that were often affected by the demonstrations. 

“It wasn’t easy; it was challenging, but we made it,” Young said. 

One of George’s undergraduate classes at UC Santa Cruz was canceled completely. The others were altered significantly. One professor of theirs changed the class’s meeting place from on campus to in town. Because bus workers throughout UC campuses were also striking, this was a big inconvenience. 

An anonymous protestor standing along 1st street in downtown Davis said that trying to learn and work while trying to pay monthly rent in Davis is difficult. 

The protestor moved to California from out of state this year and expected much more accommodating work conditions. 

“Every month it’s a rat race, … to do my work and also be so financially burdened,” the protestor said. 

George, who attends UC Santa Cruz and has personally witnessed the hard work of their TAs, has attended a few protests. 

They said the environment was joyful and hopeful. Lots of people attended and there were different events like dance classes, food vendors and actual protest chants that all contributed to the cause in different ways. 

The most compelling part of the experience for George was the commitment of the protestors. 

“People were walking between the intersection and chanting for hours, and they woke up and did the same thing every day for weeks,” George said. 

Now that the agreement was proposed, students and staff have had mixed reactions but some think the actions of the UC system have not been drastic enough. 

“I think it’s impossible to make everyone happy, but TAs should be prioritized,” George said.