November 11, 2022
President Michael V. Drake
Office of the President
University of California
1111 Franklin St., 12th Floor
Oakland, CA 94607
Delivered via Email to: president@ucop.edu
Dear President Drake,
We are again writing to you as the leadership of the Council of UC Faculty Associations, CUCFA, the systemwide organization of Senate faculty. Last year we created a Pledge of Solidarity with our Lecturer Colleagues as they threatened a strike over UC’s unfair labor practices. Now that UAW 2865, UAW 5810, and SRU-UAW have signaled their intent to strike over UC’s unfair labor practices, we wanted to alert you that over 900 Senate faculty from across UC’s campuses (see the list here) have joined our call for the University of California to cease its unlawful behavior, resume good faith negotiations, and settle fair contracts with the unions.
We support fair wages and working conditions for all academic workers and hope a strike can be avoided. If not, we have pledged to support our fellow academic workers, including but not limited to respecting the picket line. This is a testament to the power of solidarity that Senate faculty have been building with our fellow academic workers in recognition that everyone’s working and living conditions must be improved to create the UC to which we all aspire.
We ask that you direct your staff to resume negotiations and engage in good faith bargaining. If you fail to settle this contract, you will be responsible for disrupting campus operations. We fight because our colleagues deserve better, and our students deserve a high-quality education at an institution that does not treat its workers as disposable.
Sincerely,
Constance Penley, CUCFA President, Professor of Film and Media Studies UC Santa Barbara
Wendy Matsumura, CUCFA Vice President, Associate Professor of History UC San Diego
For the CUCFA Executive Board
I urge UC to take these union positions seriously.
Fully support employees’ right to strike for better wages and for good faith bargaining
I support the efforts to support GSI on campus via the UAW-2865, UAW-5810, and SRU-UAW action.
As a member of the campus community for 55 years, as undergraduate, graduate student, staff member for 34 years, and Lecturer in three departments for 28 years, I have watched the University go from a state supported institution to merely a state assisted one. The state cannot continue to expect to maintain the excellence of the University without finding ways to increase its support. The state may need to join with other states to seek that support from the Federal government for public universities if it is unable to do so through state tax revenues. Raising tuition and creating untenable working conditions will not be effective, nor will making the University beholden to private enterprise.
I support the GSIs and other grad and post-doc employees. Please take their positions seriously – the system needs to improve its treatment of graduate employees!
I urge the UC leadership to create greater fairness and more humane working and living conditions for our PhD students and Post docs, a lifeblood of our university
These TA’s, readers, researchers, and postdocs are the future intellectual leaders of our universities. They deserve a living wage.
It’s not only a moral responsibility to take good care of those in our charge, it’s good policy: students, postdocs, and others will do more and better work for the university if they are well-supported, which is not the case now: the comparison with other universities is misleading because of the local cost-of-living. Please take the workers demands very seriously, and do whatever is possible for them.
Strongly support the strikers and the comments here
The state of California has under invested in the University for 30 years. In the face of rising rents across the state, those who work as graduate student and postdoctoral researchers and instructors find themselves barely able to survive. It is time to provide a living wage for those provide invaluable services at the the world’s greatest public university system.
Support our UAW colleagues!
I support the strike.
I support the strike.
I support the strike.
I support the strike.
I support the strike