2020 Santa Cruz graduate students' strike

{{Short description|2020 students' strike against the University of California}}

{{Infobox civil conflict

| title = 2020 Santa Cruz graduate students' strike

| image = 2020 UCSC strike 1.jpg

| caption = A student march during the strike

| date = January 2020 – August 2020

| place = Santa Cruz, California

| causes =

| goals = * $1,412 per month cost of living adjustment

| casualties_label = Arrests and firings

| notes =

| methods = * Wildcat strike actions

| result =

| side1 = * Graduate student workers at University of California, Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz unit of United Auto Workers Local 2865
UCSC Graduate Students Association

| side2 = * University of California

University of California, Santa Cruz

| howmany1 = ~375 estimated

| howmany2 =

| leadfigures1 = various organizers; COLA Cat

| leadfigures2 = {{plainlist |

}}

| fatalities =

| injuries =

| arrests = 17

| effect = 88 (41 reinstated)

| effect_label = Fired

| sidebox = {{Campaignbox US service strikes}}

}}

The 2020 Santa Cruz graduate students' strike was a wildcat strike launched against the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).

Background

{{further|Graduate student employee unionization|California housing shortage#Affordability}}

In August 2018, the University of California (UC) system signed a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2865 representing over 19,000 academic student employees, including graduate student teaching assistants, across the UC system. While the contract was originally ratified by a majority of members that participated in voting, 83% of graduate workers from UCSC voted against ratification.{{cite news |last1=Karlis |first1=Nicole |title=Homeless and suffering in Santa Cruz, grad students start a wildcat strike |url=https://www.salon.com/2020/01/25/do-i-do-research-or-pay-rent-grad-students-in-santa-cruz-start-a-wildcat-strike/ |access-date=18 February 2020 |work=Salon |date=25 January 2020 |language=en}} With the high cost of living in the Santa Cruz area because of nearby Silicon Valley, many UCSC graduate workers expressed dissatisfaction with the contract since it did not include a cost of living adjustment (COLA). Graduate workers at UCSC spend 50 to 80% of their income on rent, well over the 30% threshold to be considered rent burdened.{{cite web |url=http://goodtimes.sc/santa-cruz-news/how-strike-and-covid-19-shutdown-affect-ucsc-students/ |title=How Strikes and a COVID-19 Shutdown Affect UCSC Students |last=Guild |first=Todd |date=1 April 2020 |website=Good Times Santa Cruz |language=en-US |access-date=21 April 2020}} Seeking parity with University of California, Riverside,{{cite news |last1=Cowan |first1=Jill |title=Why Graduate Students at U.C. Santa Cruz Are Striking |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/11/us/ucsc-strike.html |access-date=18 February 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=11 February 2020 |language=en}} union members broke with UAW Local 2865 leadership in an effort to get the university system to pay for the $1,412 per month wage increase.{{cite news |last1=Ibarra |first1=Nicholas |title=UCSC graduate students go on strike |url=https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2020/02/10/ucsc-graduate-students-go-on-strike/ |access-date=18 February 2020 |work=Santa Cruz Sentinel |date=11 February 2020 |language=en}} Simultaneously, organizers were elected into the graduate student association on a COLA slate.{{citation needed|date=May 2024}}

Wildcat strike actions

By the end of 2019, graduate student instructors and teaching assistants engaged in a "grading strike" by refusing to submit over 12,000 fall-quarter grades for undergraduate students. This amounted to roughly 20% of all UCSC grades not being received by the December 18 deadline.{{cite news |last1=Ibarra |first1=Nicholas |title=More than 12,000 fall grades missing as strike continues at UC Santa Cruz |url=https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2020/01/08/more-than-12000-fall-grades-missing-as-strike-continues-at-uc-santa-cruz/ |access-date=18 February 2020 |work=Santa Cruz Sentinel |date=9 January 2020 |language=en}}

File:2020 UCSC strike 2.jpg

On February 10, tensions escalated when graduate students initiated demonstrations which sought to block traffic flow in and out of campus. Tony Boardman, a co-president of the UCSC Graduate Student Association who was participating in the strike, estimated that about 350 of graduate student workers took part with hundreds of undergraduate student protesters. Several hundred undergraduates as well as many faculty members marched in solidarity and picketed alongside them, shutting down both entrances to UCSC for hours on Friday, February 21, with solidarity protests at many of the other UC campuses.{{cite news |last=Ho |first=Vivian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/21/university-california-santa-cruz-graduate-students-strike |title=California grad students risk losing their jobs amid months-long strike |date=22 February 2020 |work=The Guardian |access-date=25 February 2020 |issn=0261-3077 |language=en-GB}}

Protesters in support of COLA disrupted a computer science midterm students had been taking on February 27, 2020, for about 5 minutes. Undergraduate students present at the time later posted online to Reddit expressing their frustration and discontent with strikers. Members of the UCSC's COLA movement apologized and claimed to not know there was an ongoing midterm, adding that the disruption was intended to explain their cause to the reluctant STEM students.{{cite news |last1=Janelle Marie |first1=Salanga |title=Over fifty-four UCSC strikers notified of dismissal for continuing to withhold Fall Quarter grades |url=https://theaggie.org/2020/02/28/54-cola-strikers-at-ucsc-served-notices-of-intent-to-dismiss-for-continuing-to-withhold-fall-quarter-grades/ |access-date=5 March 2020 |work=The California Aggie |date=29 February 2020 |language=en}}

Gaining support

Graduate assistants blocked all entrances to the Santa Cruz campus before dawn on March 5, 2020, as part of a day of action for all 10 campuses of a UC-wide COLA movement.{{cite news |last1=Flaherty |first1=Colleen |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/03/06/cola4all-shuts-down-uc-santa-cruz |title=#COLA4ALL Shuts Down UC Santa Cruz |work=Inside Higher Ed |date=6 March 2020 |access-date=6 March 2020 |language=en}}{{cite news |url=https://www.dailycal.org/2020/03/06/united-we-bargain-more-than-1000-students-protest-in-support-of-cola/ |title='United we bargain': More than 1,000 students protest in support of COLA |date=6 March 2020 |work=The Daily Californian |access-date=6 March 2020 |language=en-U}}{{cite news |last1=Spence |first1=Evelyn |url=https://www.noozhawk.com/article/ucsanta_barbara_students_strike_for_cost_of_living_adjustment |title=UCSB Graduate Students Strike for Cost-of-Living Adjustment |work=Noozhawk |access-date=6 March 2020 |language=en}}

Graduate workers and undergraduate supporters at other UC sister schools, including Santa Barbara, San Diego, Los Angeles, Irvine, Riverside, and Berkeley have staged demonstrations in support of COLA and the striking workers. Graduate students at UC San Diego began a grading strike, withholding grades starting on March 24.{{cite web |url=https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/education/as-ucsds-offerings-continue-online-so-is-its-grad-student-strike/ |title=As UCSD's Offerings Continue Online, So Is Its Grad Student Strike |date=16 April 2020 |website=Voice of San Diego |access-date=21 April 2020 |language=en-US}}

On March 3, the system-wide bargaining committee of UAW 2865 called for a unfair labor practice strike from its entire membership, before voting against authorizing a strike vote.{{cite web |url=https://uaw2865.org/bargaining-team-calls-for-a-membership-strike-authorization-vote-over-ucs-unfair-labor-practices/ |title=Bargaining Team Calls for a Membership Strike Authorization Vote Over UC's Unfair Labor Practices |website=uaw2865.org |date=March 3, 2020 |access-date=21 April 2020}} Once ratified by a vote of the membership, the UC system would have to address the unfair labor practices in order to prevent a strike. However, these negotiations were sidetracked by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the transition to remote learning. UAW then released specific COVID related closure demands.{{cite web |url=http://uaw2865.org/covid-19-crisis-makes-one-thing-clear-we-need-a-cola-now-more-than-ever/ |title=Covid-19 Crisis Makes One Thing Clear: We Need a COLA Now More Than Ever |website=uaw2865.org |date=March 16, 2020 |access-date=21 April 2020}}

Reaction and effects

In a message circulated on January 6, interim provost Lori Kletzer stated that "[The grading strike] has made meeting and working together impossible... and has delayed the implementation of plans to better support graduate students." Later in the same month, UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive voiced her disapproval of the strikes as well as citing the potential harm to undergraduate students.

In an open letter published on February 14, Janet Napolitano, then president of the UC system, wrote that the wildcat strike "is the wrong way to go." And that "participation in the wildcat strike will have consequences, up to and including the termination of existing employment at the University."{{cite web |url=https://news.ucsc.edu/2020/02/letter-president-unsanctioned-strike.html |title=An open letter from President Janet Napolitano to faculty, staff and students at UC Santa Cruz |website=UC Santa Cruz News |language=en |access-date=21 April 2020}} In a response letter published February 19, the UC Academic Council called on Napolitano not to retaliate against striking graduate students and to lessen the police presence on campus. Three-hundred faculty at UCSC signed a letter promising not to retaliate against students demonstrating for higher pay. Similar letters garnered hundreds of faculty signatures at Berkeley and Davis.{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-07/graduate-student-movement-at-uc-gains-momentum-with-faculty-support-demonstrations-and-pledges-to-strike |title=UC graduate students threaten more strikes as movement grows |date=7 March 2020 |work=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US |access-date=21 April 2020}}

{{As of|2020|02}}, at least 17 protesters were arrested.{{cite news |last1=Douglas-Gabriel |first1=Danielle |title=Graduate strike at UC Santa Cruz leads to arrests |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/02/14/graduate-strike-uc-santa-cruz-leads-arrests/ |access-date=18 February 2020 |newspaper=Washington Post |date=14 February 2020 |language=en}} On February 28, 2020, more than 82 graduate students were terminated of employment for participating in the strike,{{cite news |last1=Ho |first1=Vivian |title=UC Santa Cruz fires 54 graduate students participating in months-long strike |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/28/university-of-california-student-strike-fired |work=The Guardian |access-date=29 February 2020 |date=28 February 2020}}{{cite news |last1=Hagel |first1=Chris |title=Dozens of grad student teachers at UC Santa Cruz getting fired over withholding grades |url=https://www.ksbw.com/article/dozens-of-grad-student-teachers-at-uc-santa-c-ruz-getting-fired-over-withholding-grades/31162330 |access-date=5 March 2020 |work=KSBW |publisher=Hearst Television |date=29 February 2020 |location=Santa Cruz, CA |language=en}} causing them to lose their health insurance during the COVID-19 pandemic.{{cite news |last=Strikers |first=UC Santa Cruz Wildcat |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/society/the-university-of-california-strike-enters-its-fourth-month/ |title=The University of California Strike Enters Its 4th Month |date=6 April 2020 |access-date=21 April 2020 |language=en-US |issn=0027-8378}} As a part of negotiations following the unfair labor practice vote, the UC system reinstated these workers' health insurance.

More than 500 graduate students across 22 departments pledged not to take teaching assistant positions made vacant by the firing of student strikers.

Graduate students at universities across the country issued statements of support, including the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Notre Dame, and University of Mississippi.{{cite web |url=https://www.dailytarheel.com/article/2020/03/ucsc-edit-0306 |title=Editorial: Support UCSC graduate workers |work=The Daily Tar Heel |access-date=21 April 2020}}

On August 11, 2020, UCSC reinstated 41 graduate students who were fired in March.{{cite news |title=UC Santa Cruz Reinstates 41 Graduate Students After Months-Long Strike |url=https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xg8mdn/uc-santa-cruz-reinstates-41-graduate-students-after-months-long-strike |access-date=2020-08-11 |work=Vice |language=en}}