Supporters and members of the United Auto Workers union
participated in a peaceful but lively one-day strike on Friday,
protesting what the union called unfair labor practices committed
by the University of California.
Union members went on strike throughout the UC system ““
causing the cancellation of many course discussion sections.
The strike took place at the intersection of Le Conte Avenue and
Westwood Boulevard, where scores of striking teaching assistants,
readers, tutors and sympathetic members of other unions circled the
intersection from 7 a.m. to about 4:30 p.m.
Yelling chants such as “No Justice! No Teach!” and
“Union Power!” strikers drew the support of passing
cars and pedestrians.
The UAW represents over 10,000 teaching assistants, readers and
tutors at the eight undergraduate UC campuses.
The one-day strike was in response to the UC’s alleged 64
unfair labor practice charges, which the UAW has filed with the
Public Employee Relations Board ““ a quasi-judicial
administrative agency that oversees the collective bargaining
process for state employees.
Union members decided to strike when negotiations with the
university broke down Sept. 30.
Paul Schwartz, a UC spokesman, has dismissed the charges filed
by UAW, maintaining that the university has offered the union fair
proposals.
Beth Rayfield, a spokeswoman for the UAW, said the burden to
bargain in good faith falls on the university.
In a show of solidarity, other unions turned out to support the
UAW strike.
Claudia Horning, state president of the Coalition of University
Employees union, said she participated in the strike to reciprocate
past support of her union.
“(CUE) had a very similar situation with the university in
the fall of last year, and the UAW showed great support for us (in
our labor dispute with the UC),” Horning said, referring to
the lengthy negotiation process her union underwent.
After a two-year dispute, CUE negotiated a 3.5 percent pay raise
over two years for the organization. The pay raise concluded in May
2003.
The past support by the UAW has won it partiality among the
other university unions.
“We fully support the UAW with their fight here,”
Horning said.
About 15 American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees union members, whose union is not directly involved in
the labor dispute ““ donning their bright green union shirts
““ marched alongside their union counterparts to show their
support.
Although many TAs, readers, and tutors were present at the
rally, all declined to comment.
Several union members asked their colleagues to refrain from
commenting, citing fears that their legal matter might be hurt by
statements.
But Rayfield expressed confusion about the incident.
“That should not be happening. We want people to be
talking,” Rayfield said, adding that a gag order had not been
placed on the picketers by the union leadership.
Jason Willoughby, recording secretary of the UAW at UCLA, said
the strike had a significant turnout.
“It’s hard to say (how many people participated),
but we had over 300 people on the picket line (throughout the day
at UCLA),” he said.
Willoughby added that some TAs and tutors became union members
at the rally.
Some students said they were impacted by the one-day strike.
Diana Rehfeldt, a first-year undeclared student, spent her
discussion section with twice as many students as usual.
Students in Rehfeldt’s class, who had a Friday discussion,
had their session moved to her Thursday section to compensate for a
loss of instruction. Due to the lack of space, some students sat on
the floor.
“We didn’t get the same attention during our
discussion as we normally would,” Rehfeldt said, commenting
on how the quality of instruction suffered.
Hoping her classes would resume with no further interruption,
Rehfeldt expressed hope about the trade dispute outcome.
“Hopefully, it gets resolved very soon,” she
said.
Some professors were forced to hold their own discussion
sections to fill-in for their striking TAs.
Both Rayfield and Schwartz expressed hope that the dispute would
be resolved soon to avoid more strikes.
The UAW said it had not planned any more strikes.
“At the moment, there are no further strikes planned, but
our membership will remain mobilized,” Rayfield said, adding
she hopes constructive negotiations can resume.