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Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 20:12:21 -0700
From: Christian Harlow <harlowc@cats.ucsc.edu>
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To: "socgrad@csf.colorado.edu" <socgrad@csf.colorado.edu>
Subject: [Fwd: Strikes in the UC! Press Release]
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Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 14:42:07 -0700 (PDT)
From: ASE/UAW--UCSC <ase@netcom.com>
Subject: Strikes in the UC! Press Release
To: ase-list@netcom.com
cc: grads <anthrograds@cats.ucsc.edu>, cegrads@cse.ucsc.edu,
        cisgrads@cse.ucsc.edu, econgrads@cats.ucsc.edu, grads@biology.ucsc.edu,
        grads@hydrogen.UCSC.EDU, grads@rupture.ucsc.edu, grads@ernie.ucsc.edu,
        grads@lick.ucolick.org, grads@ling.ucsc.edu, grads@maxwell.UCSC.EDU,
        histcongrads@hum.ucsc.edu, litgrads@hum.ucsc.edu, memo@bio.ucsc.edu,
        socgrad@cats.ucsc.edu, plum@cats.ucsc.edu
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ASSOCIATION OF STUDENT EMPLOYEES/UAW
=A5 2166 AVENIDA DE LA PLAYA =A5 SUITE E =A5 LA JOLLA CALIFORNIA =A5 92037 =
=A5 =20
 =A5 619-454-0170 =A5 e-mail: aseuaw@igc.apc.org =A5
"The University Works Because We Do"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ATTN: NEWS, EDUCATION, AND LABOR EDITORS

Local Contacts: Anthony Navarrete, ASE/UAW Organizing Committee =A5
619-454-0170 (w) =A5 619-595-7966 (h) Joel Beeson, Lead Organizer, ASE/UAW =
=A5
619-454-0170 (w) =A5 619-692-1256 (h)
=09=09=09=09=09=09
(HEADLINE)=20
University of California Teaching Assistants Set to Kickoff=20
Statewide Campaign of Rolling Strikes and Disruptions=20
(Subhead)
Chancellors Refuse to Meet with Unions Representing the Majority of
Academic Workers on Six Campuses

(San Diego-April 23, 1997) - Prompted by the refusal of Chancellors to
meet with unions representing the majority of academic student employees
on University of California campuses, teaching assistants (TAs) at UC
Berkeley, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Santa Cr uz, and UC Santa Barbara will
kickoff a system-wide campaign of rolling strikes and disruptive actions
on April 23. Unions on six campuses, who form the California Alliance of
Unionized Student Employees (CAUSE), called on the University of
California to recognize their collective bargaining rights. They sent
letters asking their respective Chancellors to meet with them and work out
an agreement to avert the impending strikes. The Chancellors rejected the
unions' requests.=20

"We remain open to meeting with the Chancellors and working out some sort
of settlement of this crisis," said Association of Student Employee/UAW
(ASE/UAW) member Sarah Schrank, "we've offered to compromise, but the UC
seems determined to ignore the democ ratic rights of TAs." Schrank, a
History graduate student at UCSD, says the unions will begin a campaign of
strikes and disruptions with a system-wide protest action on Wednesday,
April 23.=20

Across the state, scores of teaching assistants will stage protests
wearing paper bags over their heads to symbolize the "Unrecognized
Teaching Assistant"- in order to highlight the UC's stubborn refusal to
recognize the collective bargaining agent chosen by majorities on each
campus. At the UCSD campus, ASE/UAW members will protest the UC's attack
on employees' rights with a noon march and rally at the Chancellor's
complex.=20

In the wake of UC system-wide strikes last Fall, three more campuses filed
cards last month - signed by a majority of teaching assistants - with the
state Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), asking for union
representation. Teaching assistants at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and
UCSD, joining their counterparts at UCLA, UCSB and UC Davis, officially
petitioned the state board to begin collective bargaining with the UC
administration.

 In the past, a majority of teaching assistants (TAs) at Berkeley, UCS D
and UCSC had filed petitions asking for union representation, but the
latest decision to refile was made after a recent legal victory for TAs at
UCLA.  PERB administrative law judge James Tamm ruled in September that
teaching assistants, readers and tutors at UCLA have collective bargaining
rights. Union members disagreed with the judge's finding that the
university is not required to recognize the colle ctive bargaining rights
of research assistants. However, the unions - representing more than
10,000 TAs, Readers and Tutors across the state - decided to accept the
judge's interpretation of the current state law. They called on the
administration to impl ement the decision by recognizing those job titles
covered under the ruling.=20

The University's refusal of this compromise offer prompted the unions to
continue plans for a series of system-wide strikes and disruptive actions
beginning this academic year. Last November, a week-long series of
"rolling strikes" at UCLA, UC San Diego and U C Berkeley was triggered by
the UC administration's appeal of Judge Tamm's ruling.=20

-30-=20


ASSOCIATION OF STUDENT EMPLOYEES/UAW=20
=A52166 AVENIDA DE LA PLAYA =A5 SUITE E=20
=A5 LA JOLLA CALIFORNIA =A5 92037 =A5
 =A5 619-454-0170 =A5 e-mail: aseuaw@igc.apc.org =A5


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