UC Santa Cruz Workers Join Striking Grad Students, Rally for Higher Pay

The housing affordability crisis is continuing to spark strikes at UC Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz County's largest employer. On Thursday, about 200 people rallied on the UCSC campus to support graduate students and university workers who are striking for higher wages.

Tony Boardman is a Ph.D. student in literature and a teaching assistant (TA) at UC Santa Cruz. But he said the pay isn’t enough to live on.

He’s an international student from the United Kingdom and said people warned him about the high cost of living in Santa Cruz. “But I thought there would be a way. I thought the university would take care of me. And that's not how it turned out,” he said.

A recent study by Apartment List found nearly 60% of people living in Santa Cruz are cost-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their paycheck on rent. That’s a higher rate than in San Francisco and in San Jose.

“UCSC needs to pay its workers a living wage. And there's a ton of workers on campus who need this and who aren't getting the deal that they need,” Boardman said.

TAs across the UC system are all paid the same rate, regardless of their community’s cost of living. They make roughly $2,400 a month before taxes. Their 20-hour workweek includes instructing labs, holding office hours and grading.

On Dec. 9, just before finals week of the fall quarter, hundreds of UC Santa Cruz graduate students went on strike — a grading strike. They decided not to submit grades for undergraduate courses until the university provides a $1,400 cost of living adjustment for all graduate students.

“This isn’t like holding the grades hostage or something like that. It's saying that we can't do the labor that we're expected to do if the university won't pay us the money that we need to live and work here,” said Boardman.

Nearly 9,000 undergraduate students were impacted, according to Boardman. As the new quarter gets underway, TAs have reached out to students and submitted grades for those who urgently need them. According to the university, about 80% of all grades are in, but that includes grades not handled by TAs.

Undergraduate student Sara Valenzuela was still missing one grade during the first week back at school.

“Well, it's been very, I don't want to say stressful but at the same time a little. Just because over the winter break, it's kind of like nerve wracking not knowing what you got for the class and you know how that builds anxiety,” Valenzuela said.

The union that represents over 19,000 student employees at UC schools hasn’t authorized the action, making it a wildcat strike. The union, UAW 2865, is currently under a four-year contract. The agreement, which took effect in 2018, includes a wage increase of 3% each year.

But Veronica Hamilton, the Santa Cruz unit chair for UAW 2865 and a UC Santa Cruz TA, said graduate students were never satisfied with the agreement and can’t wait two more years for further negotiations.

"People can't pay their rent now. People are dropping out of their graduate programs now. And it is too long to wait until the next contract campaign," Hamilton said.

UC Santa Cruz Spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason said the administration is willing to meet with students if they call off the strike.

“So this strike goes against their contract and the very nature of it makes it impossible for us to sit down and discuss ways to support them as employees,” Hernandez-Jason said.

He believes the long-term solution is more housing.

“The high cost of housing is something that impacts everyone in our campus community, the Santa Cruz community and really the large swaths of California,” Hernandez-Jason said.

It’s not only graduate students who feel they deserve more.

This week, UC Santa Cruz skilled craft workers, who the university said make roughly between $80,000 and $100,000 a year, also began an open-ended strike over pay and staffing. These workers, including electricians, carpenters and plumbers, have been without a contract for a couple of years. They’re part of the union AFSCME Local 3299.

On Tuesday, Joe Baxter, an electrician, gathered with about a dozen other workers in front of the entrance to UC Santa Cruz. He's been with the school for 15 years and lives in a mobile home with his family.

“We're striking because we're understaffed and we're trying to get more staffing. They don't replace people who retire,” Baxter said.

Solidarity rallies in support of the graduate students have also taken place at UC Davis, UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara.