Tuesday, 5/20/97 Walk out slated to begin Wednesday STRIKE:
Collective bargaining rights still goal of SAGE members
By John Digrado Daily Bruin Senior Staff Members of the Students
Association of Graduate Employees (SAGE/UAW) will walk off the job
Wednesday in yet another protest against the administration’s
continued refusal to recognize the group. The three-day strike,
slated to continue through Friday, is part of a larger action of
similar groups against the administrations of five UC campuses.
Teaching and research assistants, readers, and tutors could keep
dozens of classrooms and labs empty this week in their quest for
collective bargaining rights with the university, potentially
leaving hundreds of students without instruction. While many
members, students and faculty plan to hold classes at alternate
times or locations, the strike could, nonetheless, disrupt class
schedules for the second time this academic year. Although this
quarter’s action is considerably shorter than the five-day strike
last November, SAGE members are still demanding a lower
TA-to-student ratio, better working conditions, benefits and a
lighter workload. Members hope that their participation in the
UC-wide action will prompt administrators to change their stance on
the group. "The system-wide actions are meant to send a clear
message to the UC administrations that we as academic student
employees know our rights, that our strength is growing, and that
our unions are here to stay," said SAGE/UAW Executive Board member
Susan Conrad in a press release. SAGE members took their case
before a Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) judge last summer,
who ruled that academic employees at UCLA had the right to
unionize. Through a series of signature drives last year, graduate
student employees elected SAGE to represent them to the university.
But administrators did not follow suit, maintaining that academic
employees are "students … not entitled to collectively bargain
unless their service predominates over their educational
objectives," according to their interpretation of California law.
University officials then appealed the case, which is still being
heard in the courts. SAGE members claim that they have done their
part to avoid the strike, blaming the administration for their
three-day sojourn from classrooms and laboratories. "We have made a
good-faith effort to meet with UCLA administrators, but (the)
university is apparently not yet willing to negotiate an agreement
with us to avert these actions," Conrad said. Teaching assistants
from a similar group in Berkeley held their strike from April 30 to
May 2, and UC San Diego members held a three-day strike two weeks
ago. Academic student employees at UC Santa Cruz plan to hold a
strike later this month, while Associated Student Employee
(ASE/UAW) members at UC Santa Barbara have scheduled a strike vote
as well.