Student Worker Power Santa Cruz

Building Student Worker Power at UCSC

[mansplainedmarxist-blog]

Victory!

University of California student-workers just won the right to access all gender bathrooms on the job.

We can win these too…an important step toward increasing trans* safety, access, and representation. Get organized for gender justice in your campus union!

[dystopiance]

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Janet Napolitano: Drop the Charges Against the UCSC 22

From April 2nd-3rd, twenty-two students at UC Santa Cruz were arrested while peacefully picketing and protesting against intimidation of student-workers represented by UAW 2865 at the University of California.

On April 2nd, when protesters were peacefully exercising their right to picket, the UC Administration chose to escalate what was a peaceful protest by bringing in riot police. Immediately as picketing began, the UC administration brought at least 30 riot police from UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley to the UC Santa Cruz campus along with two UCSC busses to transport arrestees. These preparations indicate that police actions were planned ahead of time.

During the strike, police used conflicting messages to create confusion about what demonstrators could do to avoid arrest, oscillating between telling them to picket legally, in the crosswalk, to get on the sidewalk, and to leave the premises altogether. As a result, Undergraduates and unionized Graduate Students were arrested with unnecessary force while trying to ensure their right to a legal picket.

Since the arrests, activists have been unable to retrieve their confiscated possessions from the UC Police. This is part of a concerted effort by the UC Administration to humiliate and punish activists by withholding their personal belongings, including wallets, which has impeded their ability to eat, buy books, and school supplies.

We understand this incident as part of the process of privatization and militarization of the University of California, during which the university has cracked down on dissent from students and labor unions.

We call for the University of California to:

1. Ask Santa Cruz County District Attorney Bob Lee drop all charges against all student arrestees.

2. Have UC President Janet Napolitano (510-987-9074), UCSC Chancellor Blumenthal, UCSC EVC Alison Galloway (831-459-3885), and UCSC Police Chief Nader Oweis, issue a formal apology to the arrested students, the whole UCSC student body, and the members of UAW 2865.

3. Place a moratorium on the use of riot police at the University of California

4. Return all confiscated belongings to activists. Sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/petitions/janet-napolitano-drop-the-charges-against-the-ucsc-22

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Homeland Security of Santa Cruz: The Original Authority on Police Repression

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Send Your Kids to UCSC We'll Send them to Jail

[liminalsmoothie-deactivated2021]

UAW Strike (Day 1), UC Santa Cruz, April 2nd, 2014.  - james fidler

[artimus-blog]

UAW on Strike. In Solidarity at the Porter Quad #ucsc #ucsc20

[dubnub]

a break from the strike #TAunions #ucsc #slugspeed

[camillioooooo]

My First Photo Assignment working for City on a Hill Press at UCSC. I covered two days of Strikes held by the UAW 2865 Graduate Student T.A. Union. 

[lachillona]

#ucsc #uaw #union #strike

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Over April 2 - 3, 22 students were arrested while peacefully picketing at the entrance of the UCSC campus. Students at UCSC are calling for the University of California to immediately end police intimidation of students and workers, and to DROP all CHARGES against arrested students.

[somestrikers]

AN OPEN LETTER TO UC GRAD STUDENTS—

This coming week, our union—United Auto Workers Local 2865—has called a system-wide strike in protest of unfair labor practices (ULPs) by the university. Although particular grievances differ from campus to campus, in aggregate, they concern the university’s...

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University of California Graduate Students Workers (Teaching Assistants, Readers, and Tutors) represented by UAW local 2865 are going out on Strike next week April 2 - 3 over unfair labor practices committed by the University. for more information check out: http://www.uaw2865.org/ https://www.facebook.com/ucstudentworkersunion

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UC Student Worker's Union (UAW 2865) announces a strike on April 2-3. The union argues that student workers deserve a say in the conditions of their education and employment. Fighting for a say over class sizes. Fighting against illegal intimidation of labor activists on campus.

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Students Protest NAFTA Celebration at UCSD

Dozens of students and activists gathered at UCSD early Thursday morning to protest against a gathering of politicians, academics, administrators, and industrialists celebrating NAFTA.

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Statement on March 5-6 Hahn Student Services Occupation

Autonomous Students: This past week has demonstrated that students and workers have tremendous power. We have shown that we have the capacity to pursue collective action and have our demands met. The threat of a five-day strike by AFSCME prompted the UC to concede to their demands, and on Tuesday, the UAW was likewise able to receive full concessions for their grievances in response to their own threatened strike. Last night about fifty students occupied the Hahn Student Services building for eighteen hours, demanding the resignation of recently appointed UC president Janet Napolitano. The occupation was in response to a call for solidarity by the UC Berkeley Students of Color Solidarity Coalition, following their occupation of the Blum Center on the occasion of President Napolitano’s visit to the campus. We stand in opposition to Janet Napolitano for many reasons. For one, she has no past experience as an educator, nor does she have knowledge of the issues that are specific to California. Additionally, as the head of the Department of Homeland Security, our new UC president was responsible for the deportation of 1.6 million people, causing immense suffering for countless families and loved ones. At the University of California she is continuing this role, imposing the logic of crisis management, one that has been unfolding since the financial crisis several years ago when budget cuts and fee hikes were unilaterally passed without any student approval. Her record is an index of repressing the self-organization of students and workers combatting increasingly precarious working and living conditions – of using fear, force, and violence to further the exploitation of labor. Starting at 2:30 PM yesterday, students gathered for a rally at which it was made clear that the AFSCME and UAW victories should not be accepted piecemeal but should be a part of a longer struggle. After a march to McHenry Library, more than a hundred-strong, students went to the Hahn Student Services building and subsequently occupied it. Speakers from a number of organizations such as MEChA, Students Informing Now (SIN), Committee for Justice in Palestine (CJP) and Youth Immigrant Coalition spoke at the occupied space and discussion groups were spontaneously formed, allowing students to talk about their future, both inside and outside the university. Hahn was transformed into a site for students to meet and have face-to-face conversations, talking about various issues that they are unable to have in the normal everyday activities of university life. For a temporary period of time, this building truly belonged to the students, as a place to gather forces. And this is only the beginning. We call on other campuses to take up the fight, to continue escalating this struggle, just as we call for others on our campus to join us in reflection and action. - Autonomous Students