Win For Grad Workers As UC Santa Cruz Reinstates 41 Fired Grad Students
The University of California, Santa Cruz, has finally reinstated 41 graduate student workers after firing them in March in the midst of a wildcat strike and as a pandemic was set to take hold in the state.
According to Inside Higher Ed, the reinstatement of the UCSC grad students is “a result of a settlement between the university and the graduate worker’s union, UAW 2865. In July the two parties reached a deal in which the union agreed to drop an unfair labor practice charge with the California Public Employment Relations Board in exchange for providing a path to reinstatement for fired teaching assistants and instructors.”
Back in December, more than 200 UCSC grad student teaching assistants and instructors refused to turn in fall grades, resulting in a wildcat strike, to demand an increase in stipend or cost-of-living adjustment (also known as COLA). The students said wages were too low while rent had become astronomically high and unaffordable in their city.
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