At all the Universities of California this past quarter

There were strikes held by over 48,000 academic workers — graduate students, phd students and other researchers at the various UC schools. These strikes started very suddenly the week of November 14th (otherwise known to most in the Quarter system) as Week 8.

The strikers are demanding livable wages, better coverage and support for workers who are caregivers/parents, and sustainable transportation options to get to their jobs. Speaking firsthand, many researchers at my university actually rent and live in housing provided by the University — with the majority of their paycheck (from the UC) actually going right back to them. For the rest, rent in the surrounding neighborhoods near the school (the UCs require that TAs live nearby) is obscenely high and the pay for working as Teaching Assistants (TAs) or Researchers doesn’t cover that rent.

As a student attending throughout the strikes, this has had a incredible impact on my education with half of my classes and office hours — the half run by TAs being outright cancelled due to the strike.

It should be noted that I (and the vast majority of my fellow students across all the UCs) are in complete support of the strike.

Seeing as this was my first quarter at a proper University after two years of completely online schooling due to COVID, it made for a rough transition. Many Students and Faculty have sent messages to the UC system demanding that TAs get the pay they deserve and for the UC to end the strikes so that we can get back to “normal” schooling.

With schools like UCLA donating large amounts of money (in the millions) to campaigns in the Midwest (well outside of California), and expanding the size of the campus, it seems cartoonishly villainous how unwilling the UC system is to properly support and pay their most important workers.

Speaking personally, I depended on my TAs to do the vast majority of the teaching for some of my classes. Here’s hoping Winter Quarter goes more smoothly.