Teaching Assistants Fight for Workload Protections at UC Campuses

Tue, Jul 10, 2007 7:19PM

On June 12th, teaching assistants and other members of UAW Local 2865 held a grade-in at the Baytree Plaza at UC Santa Cruz as part of a statewide action to highlight our demand for better protections against excessive workload. The action was successful and turned out over a thousand TAs, readers, and tutors across seven UC campuses. The willingness of Local 2865 to take action around important issues is a vital part of negotiations.

In the bargaining session that took place June 18th and 19th, progress was made towards adding protections against discrimination on the basis of pregnancy or gender identity.

According to a June 27th email from the UAW Local 2865 Bargaining Committee, they are still focusing on non-economic issues before moving to topics such as wages and benefits. Preliminary discussions have begun on healthcare and an agreement was reached to devote some time towards this important topic during the next bargaining sessions.

Fruitful discussions on complex issues such as healthcare are hindered if the union is not informed of relevant facts. In fact, the administration has a legal obligation to provide the union with information relevant to bargaining. Unfortunately, Local 2865 had to remind the administration that they have not yet fulfilled their obligation to address the union's requests for information on healthcare.

The most recent bargaining session took place on July 9th and 10th, but I have not heard any details from those meetings.

The UAW Local 2865 Bargaining Committee are:

Tarone Bittner, Davis Unit Chair
Toi Carter, Riverside Recording Secretary
Meaghan Chadwick, Merced Unit Chair
Clinton Christensen, San Diego Recording Secretary
Cassandra Engeman, Santa Barbara Recording Secretary
Michelle Gallagher, Los Angeles Unit Chair
Tim Gutierrez, Davis Recording Secretary
Adam Hefty, Santa Cruz Recording Secretary
Samantha Iyer, Berkeley Recording Secretary
Jamie Keeton, Los Angeles Recording Secretary
Daraka Larimore-Hall, Santa Barbara Unit Chair
Christine Petit, Riverside Unit Chair
Dan Roth, Berkeley Unit Chair
David Selby, San Diego Unit Chair
Sara Smith, Santa Cruz Unit Chair
Coral Wheeler, Irvine Recording Secretary

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UAW Local 2865 - Santa Cruz
310 Locust St., Suite B/Mailbox 2
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
phone: (831) 423-9737 / fax: (831) 423-3606
santacruz [at] uaw2865.org / http://www.uaw2865.org

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UAW Members for Quality Education and Democracy
UAW-QUAD
http://uaw-quad.org

UAW-QUAD is an organization of activists within UAW 2865. Our goals include increasing the quality of education at UC and supporting labor struggles at our campuses and in our communities.

There are two active working groups within UAW-QUAD:

Justice in Education working group: With a goal of ensuring a high quality education for all students, and making education accessible to all.

Unit working group: With a focus on building a grassroots and engaged Santa Cruz unit within our union.

§UC Santa Cruz Teaching Assistants

by ~Bradley

Tue, Jul 10, 2007 7:19PM

"The main issue right now is getting greater protections against excessive workload. Unfortunately, the university has been dragging its feet on our proposals. The grade-in will serve to dramatize the union's bargaining demands for greater workload protections. One of our main proposals is to link our workloads as TA's to the quality of education of undergraduates -- we want protections against out of control class sizes."
http://indybay.org/newsitems/2007/06/05/18425064.php

§Self Defense

by ~Bradley

Tue, Jul 10, 2007 7:19PM

§Pensive

by ~Bradley

Tue, Jul 10, 2007 7:19PM

"As contract negotiations have progressed, the administration has stalled having any serious discussion over workload. As enrollment has steadily increased statewide, class and section sizes have ballooned, creating more work for Teaching Assistants, Tutors, and Readers. When we are overworked we cannot provide quality education to our students and we are slower to advance in our academic careers. We are faced with pressure to speed up our work and do more with less. Employees want increased workload protections that would give the union a say over class and section size."

§Grading Game

by ~Bradley

Tue, Jul 10, 2007 7:19PM