Speaker 1: Hi, everyone, it's James here. Welcome to it could happen
Speaker 1: here today. It's just me and we're talking again about
Speaker 1: the UC strike. But the audio is not great. We
Speaker 1: had some technical issues on my end, not not on
Speaker 1: Matt's end, but we wanted to put it out in
Speaker 1: one the list because we thought it was very important
Speaker 1: episode and things of developing very rapidly at the u
Speaker 1: C and we thought that listeners would like it. So
Speaker 1: apologies for the poor quality of the audio. We hope
Speaker 1: you can get through it anyway. All right, So I'm
Speaker 1: talking today with Matthew, a literally the seven seventh to
Speaker 1: PhD candidate in the history department. Matthew, would you like
Speaker 1: to explain a little bit of who you are and
Speaker 1: what you've been doing with reference to the strike in
Speaker 1: the last three weeks and maybe before as well. Yes.
Speaker 1: So I studied Spanish history like you set Empire for
Speaker 1: seven years, US in Spain for two years during the
Speaker 1: COVID pandemic. So there was sort of great in my
Speaker 1: university of participation between my mind qual of buying exams
Speaker 1: for the three years I was there, um and then
Speaker 1: I left and I came back and I go on
Speaker 1: the campus was was quite different both from COVID and
Speaker 1: from the increasingly economic hardships UM. So in the last
Speaker 1: few year UH we involved in UM targeting UM trying
Speaker 1: to buy a new contract UM as I'm sure all
Speaker 1: your listeners are aware by this point, UH riting on
Speaker 1: for more than a year, in eighteen months in some
Speaker 1: cases without a successful resolution, and with all I know
Speaker 1: about bare labor practices on behalf of the UC administration
Speaker 1: I saw in November fifteen, I believe was today we
Speaker 1: walked out on strength. I had signed up several months
Speaker 1: earlier to be a strike captain for the History Department
Speaker 1: U s assist too by a sort of the informable
Speaker 1: committee of five of the younger equals sort of due
Speaker 1: to the pandemic of a lot of my colleagues and
Speaker 1: my code board UM and we're not able to go
Speaker 1: do their research. So they're generally out of the country
Speaker 1: right now doing their field research. So we have a
Speaker 1: really great department of primarily first through third years that
Speaker 1: are participating UM and and kind of meeting the younger
Speaker 1: I also ad signed up to be a ticket UH,
Speaker 1: a ticket leader UM and boiled down to But I've
Speaker 1: been really occupying myself and saying has been uh being
Speaker 1: a food captain. So we've been cooking for about a
Speaker 1: hundred fifty people at our regul location on campus. Um,
Speaker 1: we've been getting lots of great donations um food and
Speaker 1: and fashion even reinvesting that to feed the hungry picketers
Speaker 1: and strate locations. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I think that's
Speaker 1: really nice to to bring up. Actually, because that we
Speaker 1: were speaking about before the core right. So many people
Speaker 1: are familiar with and supportive of the concept of unions
Speaker 1: and unionization and workers right, but I think relatively few
Speaker 1: people have actually been on strike and seeing what it
Speaker 1: takes to organize and all the little things you have
Speaker 1: to take care of. And so did you just step
Speaker 1: into that food captain role like kind of ad hoc Yeah,
Speaker 1: more or less. Night I showed up on the first
Speaker 1: day and I realized we had been marching around and
Speaker 1: shouting ourselves for the rotary story night, and I bought
Speaker 1: a bunch of water, and that's sort of snowballed into cooking.
Speaker 1: Now we have about eight or night. UM, we rotate
Speaker 1: shifts and fil planning. We actually used the History of
Speaker 1: Parking graduate lounge. But yeah, you know that statut our
Speaker 1: experience of ticketting is for all the organization and signing
Speaker 1: up for different asks that need to be more hand
Speaker 1: hitting the ground and seeing what uh what has needed
Speaker 1: to sustain that a level as has been a journey, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I bet, but it seems to have been a lot
Speaker 1: to be a successful one. Like everyone is out energetic. Um,
Speaker 1: there have been some really impressive actions actually, like I
Speaker 1: don't know if you're part of the village drive shut down,
Speaker 1: I know what you want to call that yesterday, but
Speaker 1: did you take part in that? No? I was, I
Speaker 1: was okay, yeah, yeah, the people who were amazing Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: We actually found a faculty spy at the day before
Speaker 1: who went in and asked what time that was? One game?
Speaker 1: Sort of uh, our window. There's been a lot of
Speaker 1: direct action and it's been very successful the moral perspective
Speaker 1: and conversational and I'm sure you're a where we uh
Speaker 1: approached Chancellor Balslaw yesterday the day before and even though
Speaker 1: obviously we didn't get a promise from him that he
Speaker 1: would raise our wages or President Drake to raise our wages, Uh,
Speaker 1: it was you know, very energizing for people who have
Speaker 1: you been been not able to show up because things
Speaker 1: give me great or involved between their people. The direct
Speaker 1: nation is one of our strong suits at this point. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah it is. It is wonderful to see actually, like
Speaker 1: so many of us spent so much of our lives
Speaker 1: like studying workers movements and unionization and strikes, and it's
Speaker 1: cool to see people walking to talk out a little bit,
Speaker 1: also very import What are the really great things about
Speaker 1: going on strength with a bunch of the smartest minds
Speaker 1: in practically every field to get you know, colmatients that
Speaker 1: are are working on emails and yers and and such.
Speaker 1: You've got philosophy, who are you know best? You know
Speaker 1: quoting working class movements of the past of shape our strategy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's a cool thing to see. I remember a
Speaker 1: long time ago in like and when last time we
Speaker 1: were on strike, and yeah, it was very cool. One
Speaker 1: of the professors I was working with with a lit
Speaker 1: professor and she came and read some stuff and then
Speaker 1: you know, made people listen to me talking about the
Speaker 1: ruty for a while, and I enjoyed myself, even if
Speaker 1: maybe they didn't. So yeah, I want to talk a
Speaker 1: little bit as well about like you're in week three
Speaker 1: now and you said, like you've been maintaining the energy
Speaker 1: and you're feeding people, which is great. How has obviously,
Speaker 1: like strikes come with an element of economic hardship and
Speaker 1: that that's somewhat offset by union strike funds, but it's
Speaker 1: given the economic procarity of people who are graduate students anyway,
Speaker 1: it could be really tough. So how has that been
Speaker 1: with not quite a descent first yet? Which would that
Speaker 1: be the first miss paycheck? If people are going to
Speaker 1: not get paid, yes, uh we are. Most of us
Speaker 1: could vince that the you see will not have gotten
Speaker 1: their their house in order by this point. We were
Speaker 1: working until November fifteen, so at least you get kind
Speaker 1: to have a month to day. But because there's no
Speaker 1: real way for you see to determine exactly which workers
Speaker 1: are withholding labor and exactly which workers runs right, it
Speaker 1: seems like the majority of workers will be receiving their
Speaker 1: first that there there novem pay check UM tomorrow. UH.
Speaker 1: We have also been received the strikerssistant sprom communion w UM.
Speaker 1: We're all aware that if we do receive our p
Speaker 1: check from the university, we will have to return that
Speaker 1: money so that we feel future uh strike assistance. Um,
Speaker 1: and we're very large okay with that, Uh you know that,
Speaker 1: and so iound out between that actually meek before it
Speaker 1: makes me ay, they double the strict existence holiday. Okay.
Speaker 1: So for this month, one way or another, UM, we
Speaker 1: are all very hopeful that will be able to make
Speaker 1: ends meet. Uh. Next month is is you know, if
Speaker 1: the strike does continue, um, sort of which that will
Speaker 1: have to cross. I've spoken to a lot of words
Speaker 1: in the intibute parts who are very concerned about about this,
Speaker 1: ahx uh, particularly also in the program that I teach
Speaker 1: for the Making of the Modern World, which recruits heavily
Speaker 1: from the history of party non student t a s
Speaker 1: and are not covered by the union and are not
Speaker 1: uh I whish forts strict fully their labored solidarity, but
Speaker 1: they're very concerned that uh you know, they're primarily working
Speaker 1: as their full time job. Yeah, that's tough. Actually, I've
Speaker 1: tinned that program to you both as a student and
Speaker 1: a non student, and it's a good program, but it
Speaker 1: doesn't pay a to and and you don't save a
Speaker 1: lot of money living in southern California, so it could
Speaker 1: be tough. Is there a way to contribute? People want
Speaker 1: to contribute to those people who are withholding labor and solidarity. Yes,
Speaker 1: so we are. There is a U a W strike
Speaker 1: hardship funds have the yeah, yeah, I'll including the notes people.
Speaker 1: And there's also av mode that we're echecting donations for
Speaker 1: which the natural that's on the UCS embassy moment and
Speaker 1: just overwhelmed with good will with the sizes. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: you know, depending on how want to strike those is
Speaker 1: would definitely do something like large partect support anything I
Speaker 1: think that the public of large and be doing is
Speaker 1: concerning the compression on the US too. Uh yeah, and yeah,
Speaker 1: I hope they continue to do so. And let's talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about everyone we've talked to so far
Speaker 1: has been a science or engineering person, and obviously the
Speaker 1: experience is a little different when you're a historian or
Speaker 1: rupt so humanities person because you you don't go to
Speaker 1: a lab, right you don't. Your research is a bit
Speaker 1: different and your work is a bit different. So can
Speaker 1: you explain a little bit about the work the work
Speaker 1: that one does as a history grad student, that the
Speaker 1: labor that one does for the university, and and that
Speaker 1: what the differences in what it's like withholding that labor
Speaker 1: the differences is that we can be are the vast
Speaker 1: majority of us that our industry department are A S S.
Speaker 1: We are t A S. And of the majority of
Speaker 1: US teach for either the writing programs for for thestory department. UM.
Speaker 1: So when we look at what we can contribute to
Speaker 1: the strike, we are looking at the withholding only a grade,
Speaker 1: the type of grading that cannot be replaced. Uh. The
Speaker 1: course I'm between or now there's five or six E
Speaker 1: A S. There's six hundred and fifty students. I'm responsible
Speaker 1: for sixty of those PRIs. Each of those students has
Speaker 1: a weekly discussion, UH, analysm cious six words. They have
Speaker 1: a content analysis papers which there's now two of them
Speaker 1: are missing. Those are things that can that cannot be
Speaker 1: reverted to choice into writing. It's not a formula. It's
Speaker 1: not something that be easily uh placed. The are aware
Speaker 1: that there has been some tension in terms of strategic
Speaker 1: planning between the A S S and and S are
Speaker 1: using in the STEM fields. UH That, on the one hand,
Speaker 1: in their in their teaching duties, UM, they are very
Speaker 1: great that their professors will be able to co opt
Speaker 1: the teaching process UM by made the exams will choice
Speaker 1: or or something else, and I'm not sure how that
Speaker 1: would work. I know that that's just not really possible
Speaker 1: be uh in humanities UM and the other the issue
Speaker 1: which can I can't really speak to, but I'm sure
Speaker 1: your other contributors have explained this is we don't work
Speaker 1: in labs. Are researching is a much more long term
Speaker 1: We primarily that research either in uh AN absentia during
Speaker 1: this warrior with external fellowships or during the summer, whereas
Speaker 1: SR used and to be working in their labs more
Speaker 1: or less constantly. I've heard it said that one of
Speaker 1: the reasons that SR use are RUDD to be less
Speaker 1: uh committed to a long term strike is because missing
Speaker 1: two weeks in a lab since that back price six
Speaker 1: months in their career, or for the mass majority of
Speaker 1: humanities uh A, s C S and I talked to,
Speaker 1: two weeks is is very to be picked up here
Speaker 1: reading a book in year spare time, and it's not
Speaker 1: something that we need to be in with buns and
Speaker 1: burners and to animals. So there seems to be uh
Speaker 1: A material conditions divide. I start using sus on one,
Speaker 1: unanity spam and unanities fada, right, yeah, yeah, there are
Speaker 1: definitely like two week periods I spent on my research
Speaker 1: and stuff that I never used in any of my
Speaker 1: final projects. We could trying to get an archive to
Speaker 1: open in Spain can often take that long. So I
Speaker 1: think one thing I'd like to talk about is like
Speaker 1: the as it stands now, what you're hearing from the
Speaker 1: bargaining team and how that's being received. Like I know,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of different demands, a lot of
Speaker 1: different things that brought people to strike, right the access
Speaker 1: needs to COLA, the NFL labor practices, etcetera, etcetera. So
Speaker 1: what are you hearing on the picket line and how
Speaker 1: is it being received? So the news for the first
Speaker 1: week was on day for the s r U margating
Speaker 1: team of week to accept a seven percent yearly increase
Speaker 1: cerviuss he adjustment that would be paid, and I believed
Speaker 1: to the median uh rent increase in I think that
Speaker 1: the most expensive cities to help work WHI mean San
Speaker 1: Diego and serment system Um. And to be honest, the
Speaker 1: strike was sold to the vast majority of of the
Speaker 1: uh N radicalized on fund educated rank and file as
Speaker 1: being about the fifty four thousand days paying as well
Speaker 1: as the access needs as well as uh you know,
Speaker 1: uh hearing the timber employment for some units, um and
Speaker 1: and various different things. But there was a lot of
Speaker 1: consternation in on day four, and I think a lot
Speaker 1: of us became very radicalized, um when we realized that
Speaker 1: not only at the uh SRU bargaining team apparently made
Speaker 1: a concession on day four of what was what was
Speaker 1: supposed to be a very powerful strike. Um. But that
Speaker 1: concession didn't really resolve the issue of skyrocketing inflation and
Speaker 1: rent process and um, you know, different campuses weighing in
Speaker 1: the saying beyond Santa Cruz rent went up something like
Speaker 1: sixty percent in the last year. Seven black increase doesn't
Speaker 1: help us at all. Like the University of California, the
Speaker 1: largest employee and the largest landlord in the state of California,
Speaker 1: is raising you know, their wages by a black rate,
Speaker 1: and then all the landlords in that area will continue
Speaker 1: to raise time of a rent even higher. UM. So
Speaker 1: a lot of us who were really I wasn't around
Speaker 1: for the two thousand and twenty Cola Wildcat strike. Um.
Speaker 1: But in the process of this consternation of the are
Speaker 1: UBT giving off this uh whole out that spakes to
Speaker 1: the media e rent um. A lot of us we
Speaker 1: think very UM I also a disillusioned but very radicalized
Speaker 1: and UM start looking into it more uh hu identities.
Speaker 1: I could say that our pig DeLine where we have
Speaker 1: a philosophy, literature, UH, history, UM, a number of other
Speaker 1: related departments blots very militant. Uh. That was the first
Speaker 1: kind of moment of uh consciousness of awareness, I think
Speaker 1: for a lot of us UM and over the last
Speaker 1: week is the last two weeks is I'm kind of
Speaker 1: internal um struggle over over tactics and strategy, whether it's
Speaker 1: feasonable to expect that we can hold out for our
Speaker 1: aimed the bargaining teams on our campus at least, and
Speaker 1: there are exceptions, U had generally have generally advanced a
Speaker 1: sort of moderate line that yeah, been before. A thousand
Speaker 1: is high in the sky is great to me. But
Speaker 1: you know, the way the bargaining works is is you
Speaker 1: walk or something high and you can get something low.
Speaker 1: I think we're all, you know, willing to accept that
Speaker 1: that is how bargaining works. But we have, at least
Speaker 1: in my big of mine, at least in the humanity
Speaker 1: has been very uncerted by the tactical decisions to make
Speaker 1: certain possessions at certain stages without letting the full power
Speaker 1: of our strike take hold, especially the reholding of grains
Speaker 1: which is uting up this week an test week. Um.
Speaker 1: Another thing which you know most of us have not
Speaker 1: been on the bargaining team and a lot of us
Speaker 1: are just kind of checking in, uh to this this
Speaker 1: very long term process. Pretty late the game. We watched
Speaker 1: these bargaining processions and see ceres operating definitely does not
Speaker 1: seem like the bargaining strategy of operating possession or to
Speaker 1: get something else there is working at all. Um. The
Speaker 1: I think made some compromises on accessibility needs up in
Speaker 1: the hopes that would provoke the u SEE to offer
Speaker 1: a compresensivey no package last time we gain included the
Speaker 1: one white mi percent increase for the s R U
Speaker 1: S proposal and nothing for the A S C S wo. Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's a that's you're still a long way apart then,
Speaker 1: so in both in both the grouple of Pola on
Speaker 1: day four bargaining, I think there's real concerned that the
Speaker 1: bargaining team is getting the short edit state. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: tough if people don't remember from the last time. By
Speaker 1: the way, color is the cost of living adjustment that
Speaker 1: was the initial cause of thelcats. Right, Yes, COLA is
Speaker 1: possibility adjustment. And there is a lot of uh, really
Speaker 1: interesting discourse from out kind of what that people are changing.
Speaker 1: No Holler contracts data mine COLA as as meaning specifically
Speaker 1: a yearly percentage increase that is tied to expedient rent
Speaker 1: exmedi man whereas Barton team has had argued that a
Speaker 1: seven percent yearly increase qualify as form right, but maybe
Speaker 1: less in inflation given and certainly less in rent given
Speaker 1: what rent has done in the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: And these universities are in very desirable places to live
Speaker 1: with very high rents. They don't offer subsidut or they
Speaker 1: didn't offer significantly subsidized housing, especially to grad students. Often
Speaker 1: assess you not to all grad students, and so yeah,
Speaker 1: it becomes very difficult to live even on what would
Speaker 1: seem like a decent wage, and unless you want to
Speaker 1: commute a long way something like nine we're and I
Speaker 1: another story, and political scientists that the vast majority of
Speaker 1: graduate students who are bold said that they were men
Speaker 1: burned that they persigned or how they're anyone to meant
Speaker 1: most people not too against more like seventy yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And you can find yourself in that situation working for
Speaker 1: the university and with the university also as your landlord,
Speaker 1: and you're paying the senses, which you know it has
Speaker 1: control over both ends, and it's not doing much to
Speaker 1: help anyone. Let's talk about withholding grades because that's coming up, right,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of the next level of escalation I suppose,
Speaker 1: or like the next hurdle um that's coming up. So
Speaker 1: what do is withholding grades look like? Can and can
Speaker 1: you explain why there's sort of a pedagogical reason that
Speaker 1: people would be obviously like worried about doing that, all right,
Speaker 1: so it's this is sort of barrier and what it
Speaker 1: would do to the university and what it would do
Speaker 1: to your students as well. Yes, so fundamentally, the withholding
Speaker 1: grades is the withholding of the alternate finishing product of
Speaker 1: our labor um. We can talk about pedagogy and ideology
Speaker 1: and that, you know, high the Ivory Tower rush as
Speaker 1: we want, but at the end of the day, when
Speaker 1: when uh undergraduate at the University of California, pays their fruition,
Speaker 1: they expect to get grades and transcripts in return. And
Speaker 1: the reputation that you see that makes it one of
Speaker 1: the premier plant institutions in the world is that grading
Speaker 1: is accredited to be reflective of very high quality and
Speaker 1: of education. We are saying that we are not providing
Speaker 1: that ultimate record, um, which any end is is you know,
Speaker 1: uh what a student with uh demonstrate if they were
Speaker 1: applying to graduate school. Uh, if they were um B
Speaker 1: D internship, really anything that uh reflax their college experience,
Speaker 1: uh would be hide that great. We are also saying that,
Speaker 1: you know, in addition to that very brutal kind of
Speaker 1: explicit uh, the result uh, the pedagogy itself is also
Speaker 1: a suffer that you know, students are here to learn
Speaker 1: and and they might complaining it individual class, but by
Speaker 1: largely you get a lot from their education. And if
Speaker 1: they're not being actively taught by their teaching assistance, UM,
Speaker 1: they're suffering. In the MMW program that you and I
Speaker 1: both up for. The lectures are but they're very you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's a very large lecture hall. It's kind of
Speaker 1: a general just be a vast majority of instruction both
Speaker 1: in the historical cultural UH content of the person as
Speaker 1: well as in the UH the writing UH aspect, which
Speaker 1: is the point of the program to deploy a skilled
Speaker 1: analytical academic writers. UM, and they are not getting that
Speaker 1: at all. That's something that's a burden that is carried
Speaker 1: on under present by the t A s and by
Speaker 1: holding that and UH, it prevents the students from receiving
Speaker 1: equality education essentially. So you're the're hoping that, particularly in
Speaker 1: the humanities where our labory is completely irreplaceable, UM, that
Speaker 1: will pressure of the university. Now we have been hearing
Speaker 1: that UM. Some universities have been given laterally extending the
Speaker 1: deadline for final bids. I believe that UH either Riverside
Speaker 1: or Irvine and just a message about this kind of
Speaker 1: extended January. There's a lot of sort of confusion about
Speaker 1: what that would entail it. You know, the strike is over,
Speaker 1: we all go back. We then have to facto. UM.
Speaker 1: It seems like some faculty have either in solidarity or
Speaker 1: in UH desperation, tided to to final exam change the
Speaker 1: format of those exams. UM. We are I think that
Speaker 1: route the most afraid that the university will UH grant
Speaker 1: some sort of or it doesn't how everybody gets passd uh.
Speaker 1: If it would, it would theory weaken the union's power,
Speaker 1: but it would also weaken the universities to required those
Speaker 1: rates to uh progress in their college education in their life.
Speaker 1: It would be a huge low for them to receive
Speaker 1: not a letter grade. Um yeah, yeah, yeah, that would
Speaker 1: be a massive step for the university to take in
Speaker 1: undermining their own status and the well being of their students.
Speaker 1: Right Like if you have a required class or required
Speaker 1: grade in a certain class to progress to graduate school
Speaker 1: or to breas to a vocational degree, then um, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that would make it. They could have long term
Speaker 1: implications for those students, right yeah, yeah, that would be
Speaker 1: a big step for them. So will I suppose Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's interesting if they extend it, what are you are
Speaker 1: required to go back and redo? That's a huge amount
Speaker 1: of labor that you would then be doing in a
Speaker 1: very compact amount of time to grade three MW assignments
Speaker 1: is an endurance challenge grade to normally due in mid December?
Speaker 1: Is that still the case UCSD? Right now? This is
Speaker 1: this is weekend. Yeah, the clock is taking So how
Speaker 1: does the how does this strike look if you go
Speaker 1: past week ten right if you go, not just in
Speaker 1: terms of withholding grades, but obviously campus is very different
Speaker 1: when the undergrads aren't there. They don't think really we
Speaker 1: have discussions about whether or not Ward did it for
Speaker 1: the long we are I think at the moment hedging
Speaker 1: our bets on the next two weeks being in some
Speaker 1: ways decisive. There is a fashion uh actually that fel
Speaker 1: that once finals are are over, are power dramatically weakens.
Speaker 1: I'm certainly give the UC decided to uh by us
Speaker 1: the rating for this, It seemed like that would be
Speaker 1: a happnhausis. I'm not convinced that they would do that.
Speaker 1: Um In I do the longer that we wouldhold those rates.
Speaker 1: Um they look, you have the leverage. I don't think
Speaker 1: the US will just throw up their hands, you know,
Speaker 1: we don finally say oh well it's right off, see
Speaker 1: you next quarter. Yeah. Yeah, I think they have been
Speaker 1: back trying to hold you out. I'd love to know,
Speaker 1: like to close out what you've learned through the the
Speaker 1: three in a bit weeks you've been on strike, and
Speaker 1: what you think like people should take from this, Like
Speaker 1: it's an unprecedented era for workers organization in the last
Speaker 1: thirty years. We've seen more strikes in last few years
Speaker 1: and we have in decades. So what can people learn
Speaker 1: from the UC experience? Yes, absolutely, UM. One of the
Speaker 1: things that I have learned which is very salient in
Speaker 1: my mind. UM, as somebody who started organizing about three
Speaker 1: or four months before the strike, I was approached to
Speaker 1: uh be a strength apton and the park. Later, I
Speaker 1: went to various trainings, I went sat in on this
Speaker 1: organizing meetings, UM, and the ship we were given kind
Speaker 1: of before the strike began was that we had an
Speaker 1: incredible amount of power the strike gratification vote where uh
Speaker 1: we uh more than three quarters of the graduate students
Speaker 1: voted overwhelmingly in the ninety eight percentile to strike. We
Speaker 1: all went in with a very powerful sense of the
Speaker 1: historic nature of the strike and our our bargaining power
Speaker 1: in our solidarity. UM. That seems to be treated by
Speaker 1: any of the union leadership as a finite resource, as
Speaker 1: something that we want of us full to trigger. On
Speaker 1: sent the workers out hope, growers for resolution, and if
Speaker 1: we didn't get it, then UM worked to wrap it
Speaker 1: up as quickly as we can. I'm sure that I'm
Speaker 1: giving them short shrift, and that this is probably ultimately
Speaker 1: an unbear analysis very much the percentage only that that
Speaker 1: you know this isn't sustainable, that we are reaching our
Speaker 1: peak power. UM, that now is the time to start
Speaker 1: uh kind of pivoting to making these concessions. And we're
Speaker 1: all I'm saying that you know this. The organizing doesn't
Speaker 1: stop when you walk out. The organizing begins when you
Speaker 1: walk out. And for for people like me, who you
Speaker 1: know at some knowledge I I've experienced in organizing, I've
Speaker 1: been occupied whom I consider myself very well educated radical,
Speaker 1: but just at the fact of getting on the picket line,
Speaker 1: experiencing and talking to my bellow workers across campuses, across
Speaker 1: picket mines has been energizing and meadicalizing all upon its own.
Speaker 1: I don't think that the union leadership, we mean I
Speaker 1: knew what to do with that account of language, it
Speaker 1: the bushes where efficient, their horses or whatever. I that
Speaker 1: a lot of school, with the our campus leadership, ought
Speaker 1: to have done a better job with the UH, the
Speaker 1: day to day energizing. UH. One issue that UH you
Speaker 1: know at camp lame specifically on a specific harbing unit
Speaker 1: or UH even the U U A W T suspi um,
Speaker 1: but it's a hunter wal comes from above is at um.
Speaker 1: If you do not picket, you do not actively sign
Speaker 1: up or ticket shifts that in this long round, you
Speaker 1: do not give strength and um And for a lot
Speaker 1: of us who have accessibility needs or are are not
Speaker 1: closed to campus, or are withholding their labor and active
Speaker 1: in the strike in other ways, they feel like there's
Speaker 1: not really a place for them um and and they're
Speaker 1: doing equally crucial work. Yess, it's good to have people
Speaker 1: picketing and on that visibility. Ultimately, if there were two
Speaker 1: people hitting and everybody else was withholding their labor, we
Speaker 1: would still win the strength UM. So there seems to
Speaker 1: be a overwhelming emphasis on the visible single of our
Speaker 1: power and our solidarity. And the concession that was made
Speaker 1: in day four was explained by a dwindling uh amount
Speaker 1: of people who were showing up for pickets, you know,
Speaker 1: from day one to two increation before UM and a
Speaker 1: lot of us tried to push that on that. Yes,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's hard to sustain that physical press. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but we should be also working to bolster and encourage
Speaker 1: and harness the power of those workers Benny every day.
Speaker 1: But nevertheless doing apprecial labor stat Yeah, is this did
Speaker 1: a remote picking option to that account? Yes, yes, there is,
Speaker 1: uh you know, in any in any organization by uh
Speaker 1: you know, uh massive workers. There's the growing pains and
Speaker 1: nariations in the first in the first week of I
Speaker 1: am dueling remote coordinators with separate lists. The resolved and
Speaker 1: they seem to have been resolved by now the same
Speaker 1: thing with some delays in process thing strike pay account disbursements. Again,
Speaker 1: they're there's no shade in this doing this, but for
Speaker 1: but for people who for uh you know, sort of
Speaker 1: on events or I really important this heck, that was
Speaker 1: a real big stressor for them, their their willingness to
Speaker 1: kind of be out there. Really. Yeah, that totally makes sense.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's it's already a stressful time. But like
Speaker 1: you said, these things will have people will learn in
Speaker 1: the process. Right, Like it's new for so many people.
Speaker 1: It's unprecedented to have like ten percent of the graduate
Speaker 1: students in the country with holding their labor, and so like,
Speaker 1: they will of course be growing painted And I think
Speaker 1: often when we look at strikes, like both you and
Speaker 1: me as historians and as consumers of the news, we
Speaker 1: like we see one photo of a bunch of people
Speaker 1: like in hives standing around a brazier, and then three
Speaker 1: weeks later we read another story about a resolution contract. Right,
Speaker 1: and in fact, what makes a strike powerful is feeding
Speaker 1: people and being showing up and looking out for one another.
Speaker 1: So like that's what we're trying to document. Thanks so much, Matt,
Speaker 1: And I wonder where people can find if you'd like
Speaker 1: to give your own social media or where people can
Speaker 1: find strike updates from the u S and from UC
Speaker 1: San Diego, anything like that you want to plug. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm partisan in this, but I would highly recommend not
Speaker 1: getting strike updates from the u C San Diego. So
Speaker 1: yeah from the campus, not from the university here. So
Speaker 1: where you see now or yeah, I think it's I
Speaker 1: think it's on the ground, Yeah, dealing documents too much.
Speaker 1: Great place on Twitter has also been very all of
Speaker 1: its current yeah to date information. Can you tell us
Speaker 1: to Venmo where people can like hell in the true
Speaker 1: Spanish historian fashion feed everyone? Have you got a giant
Speaker 1: out there? Are you? Like with the spade? So I
Speaker 1: will clarify this is a this is a uneficial Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is not the U A WU worldwide MMO, but
Speaker 1: the particulars on the US camps organizing meetings. The problem
Speaker 1: lines is at UCSD dash strikes. Nice yeah, easy to remember.
Speaker 1: Hopefully you get some donations. Thanks, I'm sure time, Matt,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. It could happen here as a production
Speaker 1: of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media,
Speaker 1: visit our website cool zone Media dot com, or check
Speaker 1: us out on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources
Speaker 1: for It could Happen here, updated monthly at cool zone
Speaker 1: Media dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.