The 10th week teaching assistant strike will test the patience
of students and professors alike ““ and will cause headaches
for the administration.
But that’s the point.
The University of California simply does not take its TAs
seriously enough, and the strike is necessary to show UC leaders
just how central TAs are to the university’s educational
process.
Since Sept. 30 the UC’s TA union has been operating
without a contract. In that time, the union has filed 72 complaints
of unfair labor practices. Still, the UC does not agree that there
is a real problem. A UC statement said, “the mere filing of
(unfair labor practices) does not represent actual
wrongdoings.” Statements like this show that the UC does not
take the union seriously.
And regardless of the specifics surrounding each complaint,
there is no doubt that TAs have not been given enough respect for
their hard work.
TAs ““Â who must juggle their duties with graduate
research and family obligations ““ receive a low level of
compensation. With a base salary of about $14,000, TAs probably
represent some of the best-educated and worst-paid people in the
country. But because they are students ““ and they are young
““ they are expected to take what they can get.
The TA union, along with other prominent unions in the
university community, also takes issue with the UC’s
opposition to sympathy strikes ““Â or the practice of
unions’ supporting each other’s strikes. The UC’s
policy presumably is designed to minimize the impact of strikes and
help the university continue with normal operations during a
strike. But it actually might make the occurrence of strikes more
common and disruptive.
By disallowing unions to strike together ““Â thus
reducing the impact of individual strikes ““ the university
forces unions to take more radical actions, such as the 10th week
strike. An Oct. 3 TA strike went by almost unnoticed ““
neither students nor administrators seemed impressed.
Negotiations after that strike failed.
And now, in order to solve problems that could have been taken
care of sooner, TAs must stop working when students and professors
need them most.
For a long time TAs have been undercompensated. And the future
looks bleak. The UC system is facing cuts in the hundreds of
millions of dollars this year, and some of those cuts are sure to
affect compensation levels for UC employees.
Knowing well that their situation won’t improve itself,
TAs are taking dramatic action. It won’t be fun for anyone,
but everyone ““ TAs, professors and administrators ““
must do their part to resolve the situation quickly and fairly.
And undergraduate students, perhaps upset they won’t get
all the help they may need in preparing for finals, should not
point the finger of blame at their TAs ““ who, like them, are
students.
Instead, the blame goes to the administration. This university
relies far too much on students to educate other students. The
least it could do is treat them fairly as they pursue better
compensation.