Student Media Council
Statement of Solidarity
We, the 13 organizations that make up Student Media at UCSC, stand in
solidarity with UAW 2865, UAW 5810, Student Researchers United, and all of
our peers who are striking for fair labor practices, livable wages, childcare
support, and a cost of living adjustment. TA’s, tutors, graduate students, and
researchers all provide valuable labor and education that benefits students
and the UC administration. Without them, the UC system cannot function.
The fight that the striking workers are undertaking in order to live and work in
Santa Cruz is the same fight undergraduate students too must face. From
UCSC withdrawing any form of an undergraduate housing guarantee to
UCOP purchasing downtown rental properties to profit off of the UCSC
community, campus administration has made it harder and harder for both
graduate and undergraduate students to live, work and study in Santa Cruz. If
there is hope for a change, we must stand together.
The UC has refused to bargain in good faith with union leadership, while
UCSC department heads threaten retaliation against graduate students
fighting for livable wages in the face of rent burden. This strike is a response
to the worsening working conditions created by the UC system. We call on
the UC to come to a fair agreement that meets students’ needs, and pull the
staggering numbers of university employees out of rent burden. We call on
the UC to come to a respectful agreement quickly, providing dignified
working conditions commensurate with the quality education that graduate
students provide.
In solidarity with the strike, FairUCnow.