On Nov. 14, around 48,000 teaching assistants, postdoctoral workers, researchers and graders at the forefront of teaching and research at 10 separate University of California campuses, went on strike in what is the largest academic strike in U.S. history. 17 academic workers were arrested on Dec. 6 after staging a sit-in in the lobby of the UC president’s Sacramento office.
On Nov. 28, two weeks into the historic strike, around 12,000 assistant researchers and post doctoral workers reached a tentative agreement that delivers their highest wage increase to date, a 20% raise for postdoctoral workers, among other benefits. On Dec. 9, workers voted to ratify their new contracts by margins of 79.5% of assistant researchers and 89.4% of postdocs, returning them to work.
A month into the strike, Dec. 16, the remaining 36,000 workers reached a tentative agreement with the university, potentially ending the historic strike. The deal still needs to be ratified by the workers before becoming official.
The deal includes healthcare benefits, childcare benefits, paid leave, guaranteed transit, and wage increases in 2023 and 2024. 55-80% of the wage increases for academic student employees and 25-80% increases for graduate student researchers by 2024.
Despite being the largest academic strike in U.S. history with large gains for student workers, the mainstream cable news coverage has been minimal to nonexistent. Media critic Adam Johnson tallied the amount of T.V. coverage of the strike...
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