Graduate union collects signatures to support rights

Published: Friday, February 28, 1997

Friday, 2/28/97

By Scott P. Stimson

Daily Bruin Contributor

Collective bargaining isn't a gathering of hippies playing monopoly at the nearby commune. Rather, it is the right of a recognized union to negotiate with an employer on all sorts of work-related issues.

And recognition to collectively bargain with the university is what the Student Association of Graduate Employees (SAGE) are demanding from university administrators.

On Thursday, SAGE volunteers spent the day collecting signatures in Royce Quad and canvassing the campus for signatures.

SAGE will present the signatures gathered yesterday to the administration in an attempt to show student support for the union.

The 3,300-member union of teaching and research assistants used the tabling to participate in a "National Day of Action" for student employee unions.

And while unions on 28 other campuses across the country held rallies, the extent of the "action" at UCLA consisted of informational picketing and signature gathering by a handful of graduate students.

However, the university's decision not to recognize SAGE remains unchanged and has been unwavering even in the light of a recent strike by teaching assistants that disrupted classes during eighth week of Fall Quarter.

While SAGE joins with its fellow organizations at other universities by gathering signatures from supportive students, the group claims it has a stronger statement to make this Spring Quarter if the UCLA administration does not recognize the group as a union.

"The membership (of SAGE) has already authorized a strike to happen sometime this academic year," said Tanya Mann, SAGE organizer and UCLA alumna. Thursday's action "(was) a way of putting pressure on the university in order to avoid a strike," she added.

Whether or not SAGE decides to strike next quarter depends on whether Chancellor Young changes his long-held stance and recognizes SAGE.

But Young's pending retirement and exit from the UCLA stage may usher in a change in the university's policies - and these changes may involve SAGE.

That is a possibility of change which has not been lost on SAGE members.

"There is hope that the new blood will look rationally at our right for recognition and end the appeal of the board's decision," Mann said, alluding to UCLA's appeal of a Public Employee Relations Board decision late last year that found SAGE a union ready for recognition from the university at any time.

"The point is to stress that this (picketing) is a national movement," said Mike Miller, a paid SAGE organizer. "You can't have something happening at 28 different campuses and not have something going on (at UCLA)," he asserted.