Friday, November 15, 1996
STRIKE:
Lack of medical coverage for dependents turns lives upside
downBy Lynn Svensson
This coming Monday, I will join my fellow Student Association of
Graduate Employees (SAGE/UAW) members in a strike. I will walk the
picket line for hours each day, I will not teach or cross the
picket line to attend classes and I will participate in protests
and actions in solidarity with workers from across Southern
California.
Members of SAGE/UAW, who include research assistants (RAs),
teaching assistants (TAs), readers, tutors and acting instructors,
are striking, along with other academic student employee unions
across the University of California system, for recognition of
their union. So far, such recognition has been denied by UCLA
administration in spite of a recent court decision in SAGE’s
favor.
While many members of the UCLA community are vocally supportive
of SAGE and the upcoming strike, some are apathetic about the issue
of recognition or even wondering what the fuss is all about. What
difference would recognition make for members of SAGE?
In order to put a face on the issue and in hopes of clarifying
the importance of recognition, I’ll share my experience.
This past September, I looked forward to beginning my work as a
TA. I happily picked out a desk to share in my department’s TA room
and made the necessary preparations for the class. I considered
myself lucky to have the opportunity to work with this particular
professor, who had similar interests to mine and was a friendly,
reasonable man.
Unfortunately, my experience was cut short just two weeks into
the term. My 12-year-old daughter suddenly had an ominous looking
lesion appear on her back. Our family doctor advised an emergency
biopsy. I was presented with a dilemma.
As a TA at UCLA, I have medical insurance, but it does not cover
my two daughters. I of course had considered buying insurance for
them, but the cost was prohibitive  I could not afford it on
the income I earn as a TA. Unfortunately, we are not eligible for
any kind of government assistance as my income exceeds the
limits.
Moreover, even if I were to somehow borrow the money to put my
daughter on my insurance policy, it does not cover pre-existing
conditions for the first six months. Since my union, SAGE/UAW, has
not been recognized by UCLA, it cannot negotiate for benefits such
as coverage of dependents that academic student employees at the
Universities of Wisconsin (Madison) and Michigan (Ann Arbor) won
through their union.
I considered my options: quit school and go on welfare Â
hopefully soon enough to get treatment for my daughter if the
lesion turned out to be malignant, or quit my position as a TA and
quickly find a full time job with insurance, hopefully soon enough
to get treatment for my daughter and hopefully with hours that
permitted me to stay in school. I chose the option that would allow
me to stay in school, and got a full time job with insurance.
It is not hard to imagine how this has disrupted my own life and
studies, but the effect was much wider. The professor I work for
had to quickly find people to take over three of my four sections
(I continue to teach one section) after the term had already
started. My students had to adjust to new TAs in their sections and
during office hours. My department had to scramble to help the
professor and manage the nightmare of paperwork and red-tape this
situation created. Of most concern to me at the time, my daughter
went three more weeks without the biopsy  possibly lowering
her chance for survival in the case of a malignant lesion, while I
desperately tried to work out all of the details.
We got the results of the biopsy last week  benign. While
obviously relieved, I continue to face the effects of the
situation, as do my students, the professor and the department. I
will strike with SAGE/UAW members this Monday and we will not give
up the fight until the administration recognizes SAGE. This strike
is only the beginning.