UCSD Guardian: UCSD grad students poll for strike, UCSC fired TAs seek support

It was a busy weekend in the University of California system. On Friday, somewhere between 54 and 80 graduate Teaching Assistants at UC Santa Cruz were fired due to their failure to turn in grades as a result of an ongoing wildcat strike. At midnight on Sunday a poll closed for UC San Diego grad students assessing willingness to participate in either a full wildcat strike or rolling strike actions. The UCSD Guardian covered both stories Sunday.

The wildcat strike, calling for a cost of living adjustment (COLA) pay raise for graduate students who are forced in to either overcrowded housing or homelessness in California's pricey real estate market, has so far spread to UC Santa Barbara where graduate students launched a full wildcat strike and UC Davis where students began a grading strike both on Thursday.

UCSC graduate students, who have so far faced arrests and firings since their strike moved beyond the withholding of grades last month, were calling for a day of action across the UC system on Monday and for the strike to spread as far and wide as possible.

CBS: UC Davis Grad students prepare to hit the picket line

The Sacramento CBS affiliate reported Wednesday that University of California, Davis graduate student workers were joining UC Santa Cruz and UC Santa Barbara in striking for a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) pay increase.

The decision to withhold grades beginning Thursday is illustrative of a growing movement of graduate students in the UC system who see large quantities of their pay eaten up by California's often competitive housing market; a movement that seems to be growing in momentum even as UCSC graduate students were threatened with losing their TA positions earlier this week.

Daily Nexus: UCSB Students to Join UCSC wildcat COLA strike

Monday evening graduate students at the University of California Santa Barbara voted to go on strike Thursday if their demands for a cost of living adjustment were not me by administrators. Student paper, the Daily Nexus, reports that the vote followed a 16 hour occupation of Cheadle Hall calling on UCSB's chancellor to email UC president Janet Napolitano as well as UC Santa Cruz administrators to denounce threats to fire striking graduate students at UCSC.

Much like the UCSC stoppage, the UCSB strike would be a wild cat action as students are acting independently of the United Autoworkers Union that represents graduate students in the UC system. Cost of Living adjustments (COLA) have been a focal point of graduate student organizing across the UC system with movements on every campus except San Francisco.