UCSC grad students planning indefinite strike starting Monday

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION) Graduate students at UC Santa Cruz are threatening to continue and escalate their strike over cost of living demands on Monday.

These students are claiming threats of retaliation by UCSC administrators.

"And with written warnings of discipline against all TAs who are still withholding grades," said Yulia Gilichinskaya, a graduate student strike organizer.

Strikers say university officials are threatening to fire all students who are withholding transcripts from undergraduate students as part of a strike over wages. It comes after a message from the chancellor announcing financial aid, but also written disciplinary warnings against students who do not submit grades.

The effort by UCSC graduate students and allies potentially reaching a new level on Monday where instead of just holding out on grades, teaching assistants and researchers are threatening not to show up for work.

"We need to protect each other from further escalation and we need to make it clear to the administration that we're serious," said Gilichinskaya.

Gilichinskaya, a doctoral student and research assistant at UCSC, is asking for a $1,412 a month increase in wages. It is a sum strikers say would lift them out of the rent burden.

The protesters say starting Monday: no teaching, grading, officer hours or research until UC administrators buckle.

UCSC sent KION a statement saying:

"We are extremely disappointed some graduate students are planning to continue to withhold grades. This can have a profound, and perhaps unexpected, impact on our undergraduate students, including loss of financial aid, ability to graduate, declare a major, or apply to other programs including graduate school.

Our graduate students play an important role in the educational mission of UCSC and any escalation of their wildcat strike will only impact our undergraduate students further.

UC Santa Cruz is in no position and has no authority to separately change an already agreed-upon, system-wide labor contract with the UAW."

Some undergraduates tell KION their classes are getting affected because of the strike on Monday, but that they are OK with it.

"We're going to have to find alternative ways of learning, which can be a bit more difficult," said Alyssa Uyeda, a sophomore. "But overall, I'm in support of the strike and what they're fighting for."

Graduate students say they do not intend to harm undergrads. Strike organizers say administrators did reach out to them for negotiations, with no settlement reached. But they are hopeful talks are just the start.

"We see the results of the pressure we're putting on the administration, but we're just going to have to put more pressure," said Gilichinskaya.