Late last week, two graduate students and a Postdoc at UCSD were arrested and charged with felonies for writing messages in washable sidewalk chalk at a peaceful protest. Workers were pushing UC to raise GSR appointments to 50% and stop delaying raises that should have gone into effect in April—in other words, to honor the contracts that they agreed to. Instead, UC has decided to intimidate workers into giving up. At 12 pm on Monday, July 10th, union members from southern campuses will rally outside of the San Diego Central Courthouse to show support to the three workers at their arraignment. Then, on Tuesday, July 18th, members from northern campuses will rally at the UC Regents meeting at UCSF to demand they implement our contracts fairly.
UCSD workers are not alone in their fight. The administration is trying their best to avoid fair implementation of the contracts across all UC campuses:
- At UCLA, they are stalling the grievance process by calling all grievances “ineligible for processing”;
- On nearly every campus, they have arbitrarily appointed grad workers below the required 50%;
- At all campuses, they have failed to correctly implement Postdoc raises and 2-year minimum appointment lengths.
Around the state, workers are organizing to win cases and having their rights restored. UC knows its position is untenable, and its only hope is to bully workers into silence. But workers are not intimidated—we are ready to keep fighting. Show up at your closest rally to show UC that we will not back down. Will you be there?
In solidarity,
Srividya Ganapathy
Postdoc Unit Chair, UAW 5810 San Diego
Pediatrics & Cellular Molecular Medicine, UCSD
Hiya Datta
Recording Secretary, UAW 2865 San Diego
Chemistry & Biochemistry, UCSD
