Page One

UC Berkeley graduate student instructors Friday staged a walkout to protest university bargaining practices they blame for a contract impasse. 

United Auto Workers Local 2865, which represents 12,000 University of California student teachers, graders and tutors, called for the one-day system-wide strike Wednesday just hours after its three-year contract expired. 

Although union leaders said the walkout was needed immediately to demonstrate their sense of urgency for a new contract, they gave themselves just two days to mobilize their 2,200 UC Berkeley members and garner support from sister unions.  

No other campus union called for a sympathy strike Friday, and by noon only about 60 UAW members walked the picket line. 

UC spokesperson Carol Hyman said the campus was functioning as usual, and early reports indicated that most graduate instructors taught classes Friday. Twenty of the 31 graduate-instructed math classes were taught, she said, while the other 11 were rescheduled.  

Union spokesperson Rajan Mehta said he assumed the majority of graduate instructors honored the picket lines. 

In September, the union charged the university with 64 unfair labor practices, which they insisted gave them the legal right to stage Friday’s walkout. 

“The university sends negotiators to the table who don’t have the authority to make a deal,” said Mehta, who noted that other unions had charged the university with using the same stalling tactic in previous negotiations. 

The union’s unfair labor practice claims will ultimately be settled by the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). 

UC Spokesperson Paul Schwartz called the union’s claims baseless and labeled the strike illegal because the union failed to exhaust all bargaining recourses—including a formal declaration that negotiations were at an impasse. “A strike must be used as means of last resort, not as a bargaining tool,” he said. 

Neither side would reveal details of the negotiations, but the union said the university’s demand that it surrender its right to stage sympathy strikes with other university unions was the main stumbling block. 

Last year, the graduate student union—along with other campus and local unions—honored picket lines of striking university clerical workers and lecturers. While the university argued the three-day sympathy strikes violated the union’s no strike clauses, officials never received definitive word from PERB that the sympathy strikes were illegal. 

“It’s a legal gray area,” said Schwartz. “We think no strike means no strike. We pay them wages and uphold our end of the bargain.”  

The university ultimately won the concession from lecturers, but clerical workers refused to include a no-sympathy-strike clause in their new contract. 

“The university is trying to put this union in this closet and this union in another closest so they can gang up on us,” said Claudette Begin, a clerical worker who joined the picket line. 

Judy Goff, executive secretary and treasurer for the Central Labor Council of Alameda County AFL-CIO (CLC) said UC was the only local employer seeking to bar sympathy strikes. “The right to respect the picket line is a basic tenant of the union movement,” Goff said. “No one should be coerced into signing a contract to give that up.” 

While the graduate instructors said they picketed to defend sympathy strikes, their quick decision to walk out prevented other unions from honoring their picket lines.  

“I’m just finding out about [the strike] today,” said Janice Fox-Davis, one of four UC Berkeley nurses who joined the picket line. She said a sympathy strike by the university’s 30 nurses could have been called had they received more notice. 

John Zupan, president of University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE) Local 1, said the strike caught him by surprise, and that he and most other UPTE members worked Friday, even though his union e-mailed members Thursday afternoon encouraging them to honor the pickets. 

Mehta said graduate student union members authorized a strike last spring should their contract expire, so the union did not need to poll members this week, as move he said might have bought time to coordinate efforts with other unions. 

The graduate students also had trouble getting the word out to local unions who do business with the university. The union won strike sanction from the CLC late Thursday, but unionized delivery and construction workers continued to work at the university, saying they were unaware of any picket lines. 

“They have to come here and tell us,” said Joaquin Deanda from Teamsters Local 853, who was working on a new dormitory complex at Durant and College Avenues. “We would have stopped if we had known.” 

Undergraduate students interviewed were ambivalent about the strike. “I wished they’d give out more details”, said Senior Nikki Bhargava. “They haven’t told us why they are striking. The only e-mail we got was from the chancellor.” 

Graduate instructors, who say they conduct 60 percent of all face-to-face university teaching, have a contentious labor history with the university. They struck three years ago, winning their first contract, and staged numerous walkouts during their seventeen-year fight to win university recognition. 

The union negotiates benefits packages, instructor salaries for some departments and represents members who complain they’re work load is not reflected by their income. 

All graduate students interviewed said they supported the union, but the picket line was packed with humanities students, who, on average, receive less funding than science students.  

Paul Murphy, a Ph.D. candidate in the English Department who rides on a wheelchair, said that without the financial and medical benefits negotiated under the last union contract, he would not have been able to attend UC Berkeley. 

Science students—who often receive independent funding and are given a stipend in exchange for prearranged teaching requirements—are not as dependent on the union. 

“I think the union bargains are very important for the humanities grad students, but it seems to me like the sciences are very different,” said one student who declined to give her name. She noted that the past union contract complicated the pay scheme for science students, making the university give them a higher proportion of their stipend during those semesters when they were teaching. Figuring out the payment schedule has been a logistical nightmare she said, resulting in incorrect and late paychecks.