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Santa Cruz Indymedia | Education & Student Activism | Health, Housing, and Public Services | Labor & WorkersTeaching Assistants Fight for Workload Protections at UC Campuses
On June 12th, teaching assistants and other members of UAW Local 2865 held a grade-in at the Baytree Plaza at UC Santa Cruz as part of a statewide action to highlight our demand for better protections against excessive workload. The action was successful and turned out over a thousand TAs, readers, and tutors across seven UC campuses. The willingness of Local 2865 to take action around important issues is a vital part of negotiations. In the bargaining session that took place June 18th and 19th, progress was made towards adding protections against discrimination on the basis of pregnancy or gender identity.  class-size_6-12-07.jpg According to a June 27th email from the UAW Local 2865 Bargaining Committee, they are still focusing on non-economic issues before moving to topics such as wages and benefits. Preliminary discussions have begun on healthcare and an agreement was reached to devote some time towards this important topic during the next bargaining sessions.
Fruitful discussions on complex issues such as healthcare are hindered if the union is not informed of relevant facts. In fact, the administration has a legal obligation to provide the union with information relevant to bargaining. Unfortunately, Local 2865 had to remind the administration that they have not yet fulfilled their obligation to address the union's requests for information on healthcare. The most recent bargaining session took place on July 9th and 10th, but I have not heard any details from those meetings. The UAW Local 2865 Bargaining Committee are: Tarone Bittner, Davis Unit Chair Toi Carter, Riverside Recording Secretary Meaghan Chadwick, Merced Unit Chair Clinton Christensen, San Diego Recording Secretary Cassandra Engeman, Santa Barbara Recording Secretary Michelle Gallagher, Los Angeles Unit Chair Tim Gutierrez, Davis Recording Secretary Adam Hefty, Santa Cruz Recording Secretary Samantha Iyer, Berkeley Recording Secretary Jamie Keeton, Los Angeles Recording Secretary Daraka Larimore-Hall, Santa Barbara Unit Chair Christine Petit, Riverside Unit Chair Dan Roth, Berkeley Unit Chair David Selby, San Diego Unit Chair Sara Smith, Santa Cruz Unit Chair Coral Wheeler, Irvine Recording Secretary ------------------------------------------------------------ UAW Local 2865 - Santa Cruz 310 Locust St., Suite B/Mailbox 2 Santa Cruz, CA 95060 phone: (831) 423-9737 / fax: (831) 423-3606 santacruz [at] uaw2865.org / http://www.uaw2865.org ------------------------------------------------------------ UAW Members for Quality Education and Democracy UAW-QUAD http://uaw-quad.org UAW-QUAD is an organization of activists within UAW 2865. Our goals include increasing the quality of education at UC and supporting labor struggles at our campuses and in our communities. There are two active working groups within UAW-QUAD: Justice in Education working group: With a goal of ensuring a high quality education for all students, and making education accessible to all. Unit working group: With a focus on building a grassroots and engaged Santa Cruz unit within our union.
UC Santa Cruz Teaching Assistants
 ucsc-ta_6-12-07.jpg "The main issue right now is getting greater protections against excessive workload. Unfortunately, the university has been dragging its feet on our proposals. The grade-in will serve to dramatize the union's bargaining demands for greater workload protections. One of our main proposals is to link our workloads as TA's to the quality of education of undergraduates -- we want protections against out of control class sizes."
http://indybay.org/newsitems/2007/06/05/18425064.php
Self Defense
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Pensive
 pensive_6-12-07.jpg "As contract negotiations have progressed, the administration has stalled having any serious discussion over workload. As enrollment has steadily increased statewide, class and section sizes have ballooned, creating more work for Teaching Assistants, Tutors, and Readers. When we are overworked we cannot provide quality education to our students and we are slower to advance in our academic careers. We are faced with pressure to speed up our work and do more with less. Employees want increased workload protections that would give the union a say over class and section size."
Grading Game
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Adam Hefty, Santa Cruz Recording Secretary
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Paul Ortiz
 paul-ortiz_6-12-07.jpg Paul Ortiz is one of very few faculty members that consistently attends demonstrations in solidarity with students and workers at UC Santa Cruz.
UCSC Labor Relations Employees Monitor the Demonstration
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