Statement of Support for Striking University of California Graduate Research Workers

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Statement of Support for Striking University of California Graduate Research Workers

December 10, 2021General, SolidarityBy TAA-Madison

December 6, 2021

The TAA stands in solidarity with the Graduate Student Researchers of the University of California system as they strike for the right to unionize with United Auto Workers (UAW) as the Student Researchers United (SRU) 1,2. We call upon UC to formally recognize SRU as representative of all graduate research workers regardless of appointment category, and to negotiate a fair compensation that reflects the cost of living and inflation.

This is a historic moment for graduate worker unions across the country. Graduate workers have been exploited and abused at the hands of university administration since universities were founded, and the last year and a half of the pandemic has made clear just how little they think we deserve.

We empathize with the pain of the 17,000 Student Researchers of the UC System, and fully support their demands for university housing, rent control, fair living wages, better working conditions, paid medical leave, and a workplace free of discrimination or harrassment 3. In the UW System and at UW-Madison, we face similar hostility and neglect from administrators who routinely choose profit over graduate worker health, happiness, and safety.

Our administration increased campus housing costs during the pandemic, implemented a partial reopening plan that harmed the entire community, and continued its policy of semesterly wage theft in the form of the oppressive segregated fees - all of which create a crushing burden for Student Researchers. UW-Madison administrators are able to insist on cruel policies like these precisely because they choose not to recognize the grad worker union and refuse to bargain with graduate students. As such, graduate workers here at UW-Madison stand in solidarity with UC’s Student Researchers United in their fight for union recognition. We are proud to support the SRU in this historic moment.

Sincerely,
TAA - the Graduate Worker Union of University of Wisconsin-Madison

___________________

1 https://lookout.co/santacruz/ucsc-cabrillo/story/2021-10-27/uc-santa-cruz-grad-students-demand-increased-housing-stipend-recognition-of-uc-student-researchers-union

2 https://capitolweekly.net/ucs-grad-student-researchers-seek-union-link-with-auto-workers/

3 https://studentresearchersunited.org/

graduate workers strike University of California

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TAA-Madison

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