SAGE focuses on democracy

Monday, October 31, 1994

SAGE focuses on democracy

By John Medearis

It is important to acknowledge two seriously misleading statements attributed to Stanley McKnight, assistant vice chancellor for human resources in the Oct. 25 Daily Bruin.

I write on behalf of the organizing committee of SAGE (the Student Association of Graduate Employees). SAGE is the organization that is seeking collective bargaining rights for TAs, research assistants, readers, tutors and acting instructors. More than 3,300 members of SAGE ­ graduate students and academic student employees ­ stand behind our efforts to get UCLA to "recognize" us and begin bargaining.

In the story "Grad students protest for union," McKnight said that "the university does not want to replace the election process" for choosing a union. This belief would only be relevant if for some reason SAGE did want to "replace" the union election process. Nothing could be further from the truth. Last year, a majority of TAs, RAs, readers, tutors and acting instructors signed membership cards signifying their choice of SAGE as their collective bargaining representative. That constitutes a legally valid and democratic show of support for the union.

SAGE, however, would welcome the opportunity to hold an election that would demonstrate beyond any doubt that we have the support of academic student employees. Indeed, at our meeting with Chancellor Young on Oct. 24, we proposed that the question of representation be put to a legally binding secret ballot election, run by the state labor agency, PERB. If a fair election is the question, this is surely the answer. The offer remains open. We await a response.

The Bruin also attributes McKnight for claiming that if UCLA recognized SAGE as a union, graduate students would lose the right to elect union representation. We are sure that, as an expert in labor relations, McKnight knows better. Under state law, recognition of SAGE could never occur without a democratic selection process ­ either a card drive (like the one we've had) or an election. To suggest that employees can lose such rights is to engage in scare tactics. Moreover, should SAGE gain recognition, academic student employees themselves would elect SAGE's leadership and determine its actions.

We have faith in The Bruin's accuracy, but we nevertheless hold out the hope that McKnight was misunderstood or misquoted.

Graduate student Medearis is a member of the SAGE Organizing Committee.