We previously discussed how the United Autoworkers Union has been taking aggressive measures to beef up their deflated membership by recruiting in the higher education realm. That seemingly unlikely wrinkle recently led to the UAW waging 2022’s largest strike across University of California campuses in 10 cities.
This week, the strike swept past the one-month mark with most of the picketing 48,000 UAW members still off the job and demanding substantial raises. The overall conflict has been ordered to mediation, although the walkout continues.
The resulting impact at UC is massive, given that canceled classes are now rolling into finals week, which isn’t going as planned with professors and teaching assistants off the job. This week, a small portion of the strike came to a close. UC’s postdoctoral scholars and researchers reached a new UAW deal after only a few weeks of striking.
The strike has been hailed as “historic” for numerous reasons, not only due to size but also because the roots of a core grievance can be traced back to a 1978 ballot measure affecting property tax rates and housing costs. In 2022, the UC’s strikers want higher wages to help offset their soaring rents. The university argues that these demands would cost hundreds of millions annually, something that the campuses cannot afford.
Further higher education news includes more UAW action:
- 1,800 New School and Parsons School Of Design part-time faculty members ended the longest adjunct faculty strike in U.S. history. At New School in particular, these part-timers amount to 90% of the university’s total faculty, who brought classes to a standstill until a new contract materialized with the UAW.
- 1,400 Boston University graduate students voted to join the SEIU, bringing the total number of BU’s unionized grad students to 3,200. All told, around 20,000 BU workers belong to the same SEIU local.
- 4,000 Yale University graduate students joined the trend to vote in their first union election in three decades. Expect to hear about results in early January.
- Northwestern University grad students petitioned for a vote to join the NU Graduate Student Workers’ union after the university declined to voluntarily recognize the union.
