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SAGE strike ends, no word from university

UC Berkeley, San Diego unions also organize walkouts

By Laryssa Kreiselmeyer

The grad union's two-day strike ended yesterday without any significant action or word from the UCLA administration.

Currently, UCLA's human resources division is assessing the number of university employees who did decide to strike Wednesday and Thursday. As of now, the administration has yet to determine if any action is going to be taken against employees who participated in the walkout, said Kathleen Komar, associate dean of the graduate division.

"It doesn't seem like this has severely crippled the teaching activities on campus. It's hard to tell. We're still trying to assess the impact it had on our teaching program ­ that's our main concern," Komar said.

At UCLA, sympathetic graduates and undergraduates stayed off campus in support of the Student Association of Graduate Employees (SAGE) during their walkout. In addition, "Students First" candidates in their first day of undergraduate government campaigning decided to forgo on-campus exposure to support union members on the picket lines.

However, demands for unionization are not limited to SAGE or to UCLA. Earlier in April, student employees at Yale University walked out for a week in demand of union recognition.

Already, student employee unions have formed at the Universities of Oregon, Massachusetts, Florida, Wisconsin and Rutgers University.

"We're in the same boat as SAGE," said Molly Rhodes, sixth-year literature graduate student and executive board member of the Association of Student Employees (ASE) at UC San Diego.

San Diego was the only other UC campus that planned a walkout on the same days as UCLA's union. At UCSD, undergraduate students have been "very supportive," Rhodes said.

"We are not only worried about our working conditions but how these affect the quality of undergraduate education. As our working conditions deteriorate, so does the quality of their education," said Kate Burns, chief steward for ASE.

This week at San Diego, professors cancelled classes and students wore armbands or joined picket lines in support of ASE, which began recognition talks with the UCSD administration in 1992.

In preparation for this week's walkout, Rhodes and other ASE members collected 500 signatures of support. She estimated that 250 participated in the walkout.

At UC Berkeley, the Association of Graduate Student Employees (AGSE) conducted a walkout in 1989 on the Berkeley campus, gaining health insurance and fee waivers for all members. But the partial waivers are not guaranteed and granted on a yearly basis, said Mark Glickman, AGSE member and third-year graduate economics student.

Often students don't know until August whether the waivers will be in place for the next year. As a result, they are required to fully pay all their fees in July to avoid late bills, he said. If the waivers remain in place, the students get their money back for that year, he added.

It was the "hindrance" of non-unionization that led Glickman to join AGSE two years ago. And the financial and educational issues that he must deal with as a graduate student have made him stay to participate in this week's Berkeley protest as well as other events, Glickman said.

In 1992, the Berkeley union was also involved in a two-week session of picketing. In addition to that, TAs voluntarily stayed out of the classroom for roughly a month, Glickman said.

In the same year, a court decision stated that the Berkeley administration must settle contract negotiations with readers, tutors and acting instructors, a group that is distinct from TAs, said Glickman.

"It's the only public acquiescence (the administration) has shown in awhile," he said.

On Wednesday the Berkeley union held informational picketing in departments across the campus and a public rally on Thursday in front of Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien's office.

Echoing the picketing cries of SAGE protestors, AGSE members also desire administrative recognition as a collective bargaining power.

"We want to work under a contract. The university should engage in good faith collective bargaining with AGSE/UAW. A majority of graduate student employees have chosen AGSE/UAW to represent them," said Michael Ash, Berkeley graduate economics student.

Most of this semester's work for Berkeley union supporters, consisted of making presentations to undergraduates in order to put "public pressure on the university" and preparing for yesterday's 200 student rally, Glickman said.

Area labor leaders and UC academics addressed the rally at UC Berkeley. Assemblyman Tom Bates, D-14th District, also sent a statement of support to the students.

"Our goal is to communicate to undergraduates that our working conditions are their learning conditions. Contract negotiations are the only forum for us to discuss the quality of working conditions," said AGSE member Roger Berkowitz.

This week, the campuses of UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz held events in support of the two-day work stoppages at Berkeley, UCLA and San Diego.

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