University of California system, academic workers reach deal to end 32-day strike

The University of California system reached an agreement Friday evening with over 36,000 graduate student teaching assistants and other academic workers, potentially bringing a 32-day strike to a close.

The strike, the largest of its kind in the U.S., disrupted classes at all 10 campuses in the UC system as academic workers fought for pay increases and a boost in benefits.

“In addition to incredible wage increases, the tentative agreements also include expanded benefits for parent workers, greater rights for international workers, protections against bullying and harassment, improvements to accessibility, workplace protections, and sustainable transit benefits,” Tarini Hardikar, a member of the union bargaining team at UC Berkeley, said in a news release Friday.

Bargaining units said some workers could see raises of up to 66% over the next two years, the Associated Press reported. The contracts would go through May 31, 2025.

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Though this strike only involved the UC system, its results could have an impact in higher education across the country. For decades, colleges and universities have increasingly relied on faculty and graduate student employees to teach and do research without the same pay and benefits of tenured faculty.

“There’s a fundamental shift in who is doing the academic work in higher education,” Tim Cain, associate professor of higher education at the University of Georgia, said. Wages for graduate students haven’t kept up over time, he added, and many seeking full-time faculty jobs face increasingly tough competition year after year.

One of the main complaints from the academic workers was that they couldn’t afford to live in cities such as Los Angeles, San Diego and Berkeley, with the current salaries.

“These agreements will place our graduate student employees among the best supported in public higher education,” University of California president Michael V. Drake said in a news release. “If approved, these contracts will honor their critical work and allow us to continue attracting the top academic talent from across California and around the world.”

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William A. Herbert, executive director of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions at Hunter College in New York, said what was going on at UC proved “strikes are very forceful means of accomplishing goals.”

Friday’s agreement came a few weeks after the school system reached a similar deal with postdoctoral employees and academic researchers. That group made up approximately 12,000 of the 48,000 union members who walked out of work Nov. 14 and onto picket lines.

A pay hike of up to 29%, increased family leave, childcare subsidies and lengthened appointments to ensure job security were among the things decided on in that agreement, according to a statement from United Auto Workers Local 5810.

The strike came at a time of increased labor action nationwide as graduate student employees at universities across the country, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Clark University, Fordham University, New Mexico State University, Washington State University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, all voted in favor of unionization.

The agreement still needs to be ratified before the strike can officially end.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.