Columbia Grad Students on Strike, NYU Grad studetns push for strike vote

 Columbia Graduate Student workers have been on strike for two weeks, a response to the fact that they still have no contract 5 years after the NLRB ruled they had a right to form a union. Inside Higher Ed has the story here. The Columbia Spectator also has coverage of undergraduate support for the graduate workers.

Elsewhere in New York City, NYU saw members of the Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC) and their supporters rally in support of a vote for strike authorization. GSOC claims that after nine months of negotiations, and the expiration of their last contract in August 2020, the administration has been stonewalling in negotiations. The NYU student paper, Washington Square News, has the story here.

Freep, News: UM grad students vote to strike

 Both the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News are reporting that the roughly 1,000 member Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) at the University of Michigan (UM) has voted in favor of a strike against what members of the union say are unsafe working conditions in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Strikers will face an uphill battle as a new contract was just ratified in April and public sector strikes are illegal in Michigan, School officials are already speaking out against the action to the press claiming that it violates the terms of the contract that prevent GEO members from interfering with University business.

GEO points to the ongoing pandemic and the summer's uprisings against police brutality as evidence that, while a contract was agreed to in April, there are new issues that need agreement between the union and the university. Among the unions demands are calls for greater flexibility in how graduate students are able to conduct their work, including remote instruction, increased testing, and contract tracing. There are also calls for greater support for international students, ending university cooperation with police, and extensions on degree completion.

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.

Crimson and Sentinel: Graduate Students reach tentative agreement with Harvard, go back on wildcat strike at UCSC

The Harvard Crimson reports that the Graduate Student Union and Harvard University reached tentative agreements on three potential contract provisions last week. The two sides have made progress since the January 1 conclusion of a four week strike by workers after four mediated sessions, but have still not arrived at a first contract for the GSU.

Of particular conflict are provisions regarding compensation as well as proceedings around harassment and discrimination complaints.

Meanwhile, Graduate Students at the University of California, Santa Cruz launched an open ended wildcat strike for a cost of living increase, Monday, to meet high housing costs in one of the nations hardest rental markets. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports that pickets were set up at both main entrances to the main UCSC campus, virtually shutting down all access to the campus at one point on Monday. Striking Teaching Assistants were joined by teaching faculty and undergraduates swelling their ranks, but making member participation in the unsanctioned strike difficult to determine.

Solidarity rallies were reported Monday on other UC campuses. The strike represents an escalation in actions following a grading strike at the end of the Fall semester in which 200 TAs still have not turned in final grades and a sickout last month. UCSC administration maintains that it cannot negotiate with the graduate student workers outside of formal contract negotiations and that the strike action is illegal.

Globe, NPR: Harvard Grad Students call off strike

Both the Boston Globe and Boston's local NPR affiliate, WBUR, report that Harvard Graduate Student Workers ended their nearly month-long strike on Wednesday, just before teaching positions were set to officially begin on January 1st.

The union says that the introduction of a federal mediator to negotiations scheduled for January and a statement from Harvard administration that the student workers interpret as setting a timeline for negotiations to get a contract by January 27th are positive developments in negotiations and a sign they are being listened to. The administration denies that their stated hope of a contract by the end of the month is in anyway a set timeline, however, and union leadership has declined to say weather a failure to have a contract by the 27th would trigger another strike.

During negotiations in December, the two sides came to an agreement on six points, however disagreement still remains over issues of wages, healthcare, and grievance procedures around issues of sexual harassment and racial discrimination.

Sentinel: UC Santa Cruz grad students withhold grades in wild cat strike

Saying they can no longer afford the cost of housing in Santa Cruz, an unknown number of graduate student workers have declared an unauthorized wild cat strike. According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, teaching assistants are withholding final grades and research assistants are refusing additional work until demands are met.

It remains unclear how many graduate students are participating in the strike, or how it will impact the end of the semester for undergraduate students. What is clear is that the strike did not come out of nowhere for the administration as the Graduate Student union had filed a complaint with the administration on November 7th highlighting the housing plight of many grad student workers who are confronted with homelessness, sleeping in cars and garages, and doubling up in rooms to save on rent. Contracts are negotiated at the system level between UC and UAW 2865, UAW 2865 had not responded to the Sentinel's request for a comment, but had posted on its Facebook page that

At a rally of support for striking students, graduate workers highlighted what they view as a system of exploitation that goes beyond paychecks forcing students to pay 50-60% of their wages on rent. Five stewards on the UCSC campus resigned their positions on Thursday to make way for the strike and limit the unions legal liability. Striking students say they are prepared to accept the consequences of a strike that violates their contract, as the needs on the ground have simply become too much to bear.

Crimson: Graduate Student strike at Harvard begins

At midnight on Tuesday, December 2nd, Graduate Student workers began their strike after a year of negotiations with Harvard University, the schools student news paper the Harvard Crimson reports.

Negotiations remain stuck around issues of health care and compensation as well as grievance procedures to address sexual harassment and discrimination in the work place.

The strike, announced last month, was timed to make the university feel the full weight of graduate student's withdrawal of labor as TA's will not be teaching, holding office hours, or grading right at the end of the semester and lab assistants will not be carrying out paid research not related to their academic program.

The strike has been declared by the union as indefinite, with no current bargaining sessions scheduled it is possible the strike could drag on into finals.