WEBVTT - The UC Student Worker Strike 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:05.119 Legal disclaimer. Okay, it's actually me, not the legal disclaiming 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:08.119 guy from Medical advert. We just wanted to mention that 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:11.000 both of our guests today are members of you a W, 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:14.720 but they do not speak on behalf of you a W. Okay, 0:00:14.840 --> 0:00:36.879 enjoy the podcast. It could happen here. It's it's it's 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:39.760 this podcast. It's podcast. We're doing a podcast. It's a podcast, 0:00:39.960 --> 0:00:43.760 and today it's podcast with me. I'm James, and I'm 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:46.560 joined by Chris and I've joined by a couple of 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:49.159 grad students from you See San Diego. Today we're going 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:51.599 to talk about grad students strikes. Were going to talk 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:53.559 about the grad student strike Volk that's coming up at 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:56.120 you See San Diego and some other grad students strikes 0:00:56.160 --> 0:00:58.480 that Chris and I have been part of back in 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:03.120 the Middle Ages. Okay, so I'm joined today. But Alex, Alex, 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:06.600 you're you're you're studying I'm trying to get this correct 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:09.360 cancer genomics a U C s D. Is that correct? 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:12.800 That is correct? Thanks for having me. Yeah, you're welcome. 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:15.480 And Tyler Bell as well. And Tyler you're a post 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:20.080 doc and you're doing Outzheimer's research, right, yes, and you're 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:23.679 both members of u a W. Yes, that's correct. I've 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:27.800 been a member for at least two years. But yeah, 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:31.360 and I'm a member of the actual the subset of 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:34.240 U a W that just formed representing student researchers in 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:37.720 completing their PhDs. So we'll explain all the details of that, 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:41.080 of course, start going forward. Yeah, I think maybe we 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:44.360 should start there and explain kind of the economic relationship 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.920 of PhD and post doc students to the university, like 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:52.080 what what work they do. And as we were talking 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:54.440 about beforehand, people might not even be familiar with the 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:57.280 fact that you get paid by the university in many 0:01:57.280 --> 0:02:00.760 of these positions, right, So can you explain that how 0:02:00.800 --> 0:02:05.919 that works? Yeah, definitely. So Yeah, as you mentioned, UM, 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:10.520 we do UH in our various roles as graduate students, UH, 0:02:10.520 --> 0:02:13.200 teachers and post docs, we do a lot of work, 0:02:13.960 --> 0:02:16.320 majority of the work in fact, that is critical for 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:19.520 the university to function as it does UM, and we 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:21.600 do that in a few different roles. Some of us 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:25.919 are paid to teach or t A classes. We call 0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:29.959 those academic student employees who are represented by one of 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:32.640 our unions U a W T eight six five. The 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:35.120 rander of PhD students are actually paid directly to do 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:37.359 their research, and this is usually funded up of grants 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:41.040 or other money that the university has your march for research. 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:43.840 So as we are progressing towards our degrees, we are 0:02:43.840 --> 0:02:47.120 doing work that is productive in our labs to get 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:50.240 papers out, get grant funding coming in, and we receive 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:53.959 a stipend to perform that work. Those students are known 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:58.040 as graduate student researchers or gsrs, who are represented by 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:00.160 a new union that just formed because it actually they 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:03.160 became recently legal to form such a union in the 0:03:03.160 --> 0:03:06.040 state of California. We are represented by s are you 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:09.160 bargaining for our first contract? And then we have the 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:12.480 post docs, which Tyler can probably talk more about, who 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:15.760 are students who have completed their I'm sorry I should 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:18.799 were really clarified here. Not students they are. They are 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:21.840 employees of the university who have completed their degree so 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:25.120 are no longer students and arguing research work in labs, 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:28.640 usually dragging their own projects forward under supervision of professors. 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:31.519 So they are represented by a third union that's part 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:35.280 of this sort of collective um organizing called U A 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:39.760 w f G A ten. Well, you have postox unions, yeah, 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.320 that's so cool. I think the one here that you 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:45.920 see is actually the biggest and one of the first 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:48.080 ones that formed. UM. I remember I was on a 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:51.000 Wikipedia page, which I shouldn't use as an academic, but 0:03:51.720 --> 0:03:58.360 I totally saw us on there, and I was like, yeah, 0:03:58.480 --> 0:04:00.840 and I think it's it's ascinating because if there are 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:04.200 all these like memes that you'll see as a graduate student, 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:06.360 and then it's like when you finish your PhD, where 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:08.360 it's like you always think that you're going to get 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:11.560 off the like the grind, right, Like you're like, oh, 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:13.280 I'll do my m A and then I'll get off, 0:04:13.320 --> 0:04:15.280 and then I'll do my pH d and then people 0:04:15.480 --> 0:04:17.719 respect me and I'll be compensated for a massive amount 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:19.840 of work I do, and then like I'll just finish 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:22.080 this post doc and then you're like, oh, I'm fifty five, 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.960 you know. Like it's all of those positions are heavily 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:29.280 exploited by by universities that make a metric ship tourn 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:31.400 of money from these people, who, as you say, do 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.120 most of the work that keeps a university running. So 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:38.120 perhaps we could talk about the issues that are at 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:41.240 State that that are leading to this this strike authorization 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:43.160 vote and maybe if we go through a little bit 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:46.000 of a timeline as well, that would be great. Yes, 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:48.039 maybe tell them, maybe you could like explain the fifty 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:49.960 ten timeline and I can talk a little bit about this, 0:04:50.080 --> 0:04:51.720 are you and I guess kind of TwixT a five 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:56.159 point Yeah. So chronologically the POSTALC we're up for their 0:04:56.360 --> 0:04:59.800 contract negotiation, which that's just to set our wages, benefits 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.920 and workplace safety and other types of protections we want 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:07.280 UM and that actually came up they think in September 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:12.240 of UM, and I could be wrong with the date specifically. 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:16.160 So much has changed. But we initially back in UM 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:18.800 started actually asking people what they wanted to see in 0:05:18.800 --> 0:05:22.400 their new contract, like our members, because the union isn't 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:24.840 like like I if I didn't care about the union 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:26.719 or no one else care to what exist like, it's 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:28.600 the post docs and we have to take out like 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:30.320 a couple of hours a week to do this thing, 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.120 and sometimes it's twenty hours on top of our research 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:37.839 which is forty hours. And so during that time we surveyed, 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.599 everyone got the demands that people wanted, and the top 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:42.599 two issues that people asked for that they want it 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:46.920 changed was our wages, and also the housing. Um, we 0:05:46.920 --> 0:05:49.880 want it affordable housing because right now, um, you know, 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:54.120 over of academic workers, including the post docs who you 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:56.560 would think, you know, you have a PhD, this is 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:59.160 the time you can finally have affordable housing and you 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:01.000 don't have to worry about food scarcity and all these 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:02.960 other things that you're worried about as a graduate student. 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:05.200 So just take this in the context of like we're 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:07.240 post docs, we're supposed to be like the most paid 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:10.160 or at least a better off because we have our PhD. 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:12.560 Think about like what that means for the graduate students 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.479 and those that aren't yet at that stage yet. Um. 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:18.760 And so when we went forward with our proposals, we 0:06:19.200 --> 0:06:21.719 um create a lot of other things that we thought 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:26.120 were important, including things like transit UM bargaining demands to 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:29.719 make public transit like affordable for post docs because currently 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:32.360 we don't get any kind of like free paths for that. 0:06:32.880 --> 0:06:35.160 They don't even consider it um. In fact, you know, 0:06:35.279 --> 0:06:37.880 they probably think we all have cars, which isn't true 0:06:37.880 --> 0:06:40.680 because a lot of post docs are international scholars. We 0:06:40.680 --> 0:06:43.480 were also asking for child care support because currently, like 0:06:43.839 --> 0:06:47.880 a good bit of you know, our post docs have children. UM, 0:06:47.880 --> 0:06:50.760 which is normal because this is a normal like family 0:06:50.760 --> 0:06:54.960 creation time or whatever you wanna call it, but UM, 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:56.760 and indeed it can be one of the only times 0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:58.960 as an academic when it when it really sort of 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:01.880 doesn't massively to had voluntege your career to have stuff 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:06.719 right exactly. And like post docs, like the whole proposition 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:08.960 of a post doc was, you know, there's not enough 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:12.760 faculty spots for once you get a PhD, and post 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:15.440 docs now can last five if not longer, like five 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.560 years or longer. And there's a new position called an 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:21.840 academic researcher, which is a type of like title that 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:23.480 you get when you can no longer be a post doc. 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:25.880 But it's also because there's just not enough faculty, so 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:28.040 they put you into a different title to do research. 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:33.040 And UM collectively, both US post docs and people that 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:36.720 are academic researchers, we don't get any affordable childcare, we 0:07:36.760 --> 0:07:40.000 don't have affordable housing UM, and our wages are below 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:44.040 the cost of living. And currently we went through the 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:48.080 proposals back then and we over time a year and 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:50.800 a half have not really made any leeway on these 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:54.960 proposals that actually changed the material conditions for post post docs. 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:57.960 Like the university has been you know, bargaining in bad faith. 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:02.840 That we have multiple UM unfair UM labor practice lawsuits 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:07.560 against from our public relations board for the employers UM 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:10.080 and three of those have been UM sorry, let me 0:08:10.080 --> 0:08:13.480 get those numbers right. Multiple of those have actually been 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:16.880 successfully had complaints filed against the university. Some of the 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:19.160 things that the university has done in particularly while we've 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:21.840 been bargaining is one not bringing the information to the 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:24.520 table that we request, like denying our request for information. 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:27.400 They have also refused to bring the people that can 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:30.119 make the type of decisions that we need to the table. 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:34.240 And they've all also been making unilateral changes to things 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:38.199 like bullying policies and other workplace issues without even being 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:41.040 at the bargaining table. And the last thing that they've 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:44.600 been doing during this process is serving members of our 0:08:44.720 --> 0:08:48.640 union outside of like the bargaining process, like we we 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:51.080 don't know about it. I mean, we did find out 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:54.560 about it, and then we followed the UM UH the 0:08:54.640 --> 0:08:57.520 complaint and so right now we're at a point where 0:08:57.600 --> 0:08:59.400 we've gotten a lot of things, you know, kind of 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:03.000 like moved on in terms of things that aren't compensation, 0:09:03.160 --> 0:09:05.920 in terms of our bargaining UM like things that we 0:09:06.000 --> 0:09:08.719 want such as bullying protections. That was something that we 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:10.600 actually had to like have a big action for to 0:09:10.600 --> 0:09:13.640 actually get that on the table to move. So currently 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:17.559 we won protections against bullying, which is kind of like 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:22.280 pretty enormous because in academia, university says we're against bullying 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:24.360 and that they have all these resources for you, but 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:28.880 through resources always end at we're right, you're wrong. And UM. 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:31.240 Now we have something in our contracts, not just for 0:09:31.320 --> 0:09:34.400 that post docs and acondic researchers, but also for UM 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:37.320 the other bargaining units to actually protect us UM in 0:09:37.360 --> 0:09:40.080 a process that like we could grieve it as you know, 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:44.080 UNI represented workers UM. And so right now, the reason 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:46.760 that we had to authorize the strike, especially for our 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:50.160 group as post docs and academic researchers, because they started 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:55.000 bargaining kind of like maybe UM further along in that 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:56.880 year with US, but they are kind of at the 0:09:56.920 --> 0:09:58.920 same place of like not getting the same type of 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:02.960 responses and UM we just want them to actually come 0:10:03.000 --> 0:10:04.920 to the table, bring the people that can make the 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:08.160 decisions so that we can have you know, affordable housing, 0:10:08.520 --> 0:10:11.000 fair wages to actually do the research that we do here. 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:12.840 And I just want to say that we bring a 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.679 lot of value to the university through grants, in particular 0:10:15.679 --> 0:10:17.960 as post talks. So we do most of the writing 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:22.040 of research papers, conducting the experiments. UM. People think that 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:24.160 if people think that faculties sit there and run a 0:10:24.200 --> 0:10:26.120 wet lab and actually do the you know, the work 0:10:26.120 --> 0:10:28.400 of the wet labs. UM. You know, that would be 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:30.800 an amazing colquitty person, But they're really busy in terms 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:33.160 of like having to write grants themselves. We do the 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:35.920 bulk of the work and actually making the research happen. UM. 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:37.440 We do a bulk of the training in terms of 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:39.800 the graduate students and the undergrads that are in the lab, 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.160 and so we provide an enormous value to the university. 0:10:43.200 --> 0:10:46.800 But at the same time, while we provide these values, UM, 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:49.600 the university doesn't want to give us a fair living 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:53.520 condition or affordable housing. And the last thing I'll say, 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:56.559 and I'll let Alex talk about the other units, UM, 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:58.800 is that you know, we bring a ton of value 0:10:58.800 --> 0:11:01.320 to the university because of the grants, and for every 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:04.200 hundred dollars of that grant that is UM given to 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:07.559 the university, the university charges things like the n I 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:12.160 H you know, um, you know, fifty eight dollars and indirects. 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:14.679 So this is a ghost money that we don't know 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:16.680 where it goes. Our pis don't get to have a 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.760 say over. And that's money that usually goes to things 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:24.880 that capital projects that could go back to keeping you know, um, 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:29.360 the post docs actually living in uh an Okay living situation. 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:33.760 Can we just explain what capital projects are? So capital 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:36.920 projects are things like you know, um, planning out building 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:40.160 buildings that they want and other things things that aren't 0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:43.720 really like compensation based or employee based, you know, because 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:46.480 the university, like you see as the biggest landowner and 0:11:46.520 --> 0:11:48.480 so they obviously we want more and more things that 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:52.040 they can develop or lands that they can buy um, 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:54.320 and that's kind of what they kind of focus many 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:56.320 of these indirects on. And I really don't know the 0:11:56.320 --> 0:11:58.720 clear picture on indirects, and that's kind of the problem 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:01.400 is that we don't know where all this money kind 0:12:01.440 --> 0:12:05.120 of goes. It's they if people. Obviously lots of our 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:08.120 listeners are in San Diego. The scale of construction at 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:13.600 UCSD is incredible, Like I've been here for fifteen years 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:15.480 now and I swear every time I go back there's 0:12:15.480 --> 0:12:19.960 a new building like and they can terms of student housing, 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:22.880 it's really old student housing. I think that they've built. 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:24.800 But yeah, and if I can jump in about one 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:28.040 of those, which relates a lot to why graduate students 0:12:28.120 --> 0:12:32.840 have become more active on this campus. Um, three or 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:35.440 four of those extraordinarily large buildings you're talking about, we're 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:38.920 actually intended to be built as subsidized graduate student housing, 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:40.920 where you would be you know, you get on a 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:43.200 wait list, you're guaranteed once you get off the way, 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:45.360 which you can live there for two years and pay 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:49.520 below market rent. Um. That lasted for a little bit 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:52.720 of time, but the university just a couple of years 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:57.080 ago or so almost doubled um the price for those units. 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:00.000 They tried to hide it behind saying that their capacity 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:03.160 city increases. But um, what they're saying is for the 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:05.360 same prices before, you can live with two people in 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:08.560 a very small square footage studio apartment. UM. But really 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:12.560 that studio is now just double UM. So that is 0:13:12.559 --> 0:13:15.200 one of the things, certainly that we are concerned about, 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:18.360 is that, Yeah, money, what significant portion university's budget does 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:21.679 go into these capital improvement projects. Which are nominally intended 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:26.200 for student and UH and postdoc benefit um, but which 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:29.280 tend to come back and and and not be quite 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:31.160 as helpful in the long run. Yeah, I mean it 0:13:31.160 --> 0:13:34.280 seems like they're just doing real estate speculation and then 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:38.040 doing rent extraction from it, which, yeah, and this is 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:40.120 something they've done, Like they did this. There's a very 0:13:40.240 --> 0:13:44.160 very similar thing in what like two thousand nine, like 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:46.720 like again, like they built what I built into your building. 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:48.520 It was affordable for a short period of time and 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:52.400 then it suddenly became completely unaffordable. And like they've really 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:56.920 consistently extracted rent from the people that they are under paying. Yeah, 0:13:56.960 --> 0:13:59.960 and those buildings were actually this this incident even got 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.040 lot of faculty on our side because those buildings were 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:06.520 a major um draw for how we were able to 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:08.920 recruit new people to come and do research with us. 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:10.439 As we were saying, yeah, the cost living here is 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.080 really high. You're not going to get a huge stipend 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:15.920 or salary, but we do have the subsurdised housing and 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:19.200 people had actually already committed to do their PhD here 0:14:19.520 --> 0:14:22.440 in labs of the university, and then the rent increase 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:25.480 came out that April or May and people said well no, 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:27.920 and then they a bunch of people decommitted from programs, 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:30.440 So it was it was a significant issue here, but 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:34.720 they have not backed off of that. And the problem 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.280 with like the university being one of the biggest landlords 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:39.880 is that when they increase the rents for these even 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:43.400 ground housing, it affects everyone else. So like prices, like 0:14:43.480 --> 0:14:46.200 my current rent, I live maybe a mile away from campus. 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:49.960 My rent was seventeen hundred, which was eating up most 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:54.400 of my income anyway, and it went up to and 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:57.080 you know, this is directly tied to like the university 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:00.160 setting a higher market rate UM, which then allows them 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:02.440 to hurt everyone else that lives you know, not just 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:07.160 in around UCSD, but also in San Diego generally. Yeah. 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:09.440 One of the big things about UM that we're trying 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:10.960 to get the university to understand, and one of the 0:15:11.000 --> 0:15:13.600 reasons I'm proud of the demands that we're making UH 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:16.280 in this round of bargaining is is the effect we 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:18.960 have on the local economy and of people who aren't 0:15:18.960 --> 0:15:22.720 even affiliated with the university have their lives affected based 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:24.600 on the rent and based on the cost of things 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:27.680 because of the economic footprint that we have And as 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:30.520 how we mentioned one of our demands is um uh 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:33.920 some more subsidized transit passes. The university already subsidizes. It's 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:36.320 a significant amount of transit, but it's not enough, and 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:38.720 it's not enough to actually really make a difference in 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:40.720 terms of emissions in our region. So we're trying to 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:43.760 raise both our own working conditions as well as as 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:46.680 make meaningful changes in the university's impact in the region. 0:15:46.760 --> 0:15:50.120 And in response to that, the university released in part 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:53.040 a very funny statement the other day that accused us 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:55.640 and used transit as an example, accused us of having 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:59.480 a quote social justice agenda. So I wasn't quite sure 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:03.000 if the university or um Rond de Santis wrote that 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:08.360 particular release, but it was it was quite funny, you know, Okay, 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:11.680 Like the more thinking about this, right, this is a 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:15.320 public university. Why are they even charging rent? They own 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:19.040 the land, right, why are they even charging rent in 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:22.320 the first place? Like what what is oh my god? Like, well, 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:25.320 it's just the the housing example I brought up was 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:28.440 funded through what they very proudly refer to as a 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:32.080 public private partnership. So that's where the money is going. Yeah, 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:37.720 oh great, it's going to investors. And recently for the 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:41.240 post docs, their solution to our housing crisis was they 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:45.240 obtained some building in downtown San Diego, which is, you know, 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:48.080 twelve or more miles away from campus, and the building 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:51.360 starts at like rent of three thousand dollars or more. 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:54.680 But like I said, building, yeah, with the one with 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:57.720 the creepy bed in the closet that comes out and 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:02.480 kills your cat. But know what it has like a 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:08.480 closet that folds out. Okay, is that their extent to downtown. Yeah. 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:10.120 I've been trying to p R A and a bunch 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:13.320 of stuff about that building and they've been quite reticent 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:17.119 to hand it over and toddly so addle. Is there 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:19.080 any more contexts you wanted to add from your side 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:22.760 about like is about sort of what is driving people 0:17:22.840 --> 0:17:26.480 to to ask for a strike authorization vote? Yeah, definitely. 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:30.280 I mean, our concerns as graduate students are certainly very 0:17:30.320 --> 0:17:34.080 similar to a lot of the concerns that postdoctoral students have, 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:37.000 except that we make even less money than they do. 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:41.200 So certainly UH urgent on the compensation side, our units 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:45.840 are demanding a minimum UH graduate student stipend, a fifty 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:48.920 four thousand dollars a year UM, whereas uh, none of 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:51.360 us make more than thirty three or thirty four right now, 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:53.880 and that's very dependent on the program and very dependent 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:58.320 on your source of funding, so most make quite less 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:00.920 than that. UM. We also of a number of other 0:18:01.000 --> 0:18:04.640 issues that have come up and cause problems for students 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:06.040 that we want to be able to have a union 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:09.639 in order to rectify. I mentioned that UM our Student 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:12.640 Researchers United Union. It actually knew we're bargaining for our 0:18:12.680 --> 0:18:14.960 first contract, and we think we're going to be able 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:16.600 to get a lot of practical benefits out of that, 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.080 not just UM, you know, in terms of a contract, 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:22.480 but actually something where we can have some parody and 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:24.919 and some for some some some organization to come to 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:28.920 back for us when the university creates issues. For example, Uh, 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:31.160 the university has known this for a long time. But 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:34.960 the payroll system that manages graduate students stipends and fellowships 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:37.960 and and and and to stipend disbursements is a bit 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:43.480 unreliable for reasons that they can't quite explain. Boy, when 0:18:43.840 --> 0:18:46.080 so I wasn't I wasn't a grad student, but I 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:49.480 was an undergrad when our Chicago's grad students went on 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:52.639 strike and that was a big thing of like people 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:55.640 like people would get paid in the university would sometimes 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:57.560 they they wouldn't get paid enough, it wouldn't get paid 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.000 at all. There was another time where they actually get 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:02.359 overpaid and the university wouldn't tell them and then they 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:03.840 just take all the money out of their bank account 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:13.800 and catastrophe. Yeah. Is it similar things here? Very much? So? Yeah, yeah, 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:17.520 there is at least My personal story with this is 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:22.239 um uh pretty much ever since so, I applied for 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:26.760 and received an H individual fellowship. For all the other 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:29.560 nerds out there, I got. It's an firty one in 0:19:29.640 --> 0:19:31.879 i H fellowship. But essentially what that says is the 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:33.879 n i H likes my research proposal and they are 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:37.320 going to fund a portion of the rest of my PhD. 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:39.440 So in a sense, I've offset the cost of my 0:19:39.520 --> 0:19:42.159 labor by bringing an extra few tens of thousands of 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:47.159 dollars to the university. Um However, the processing for that 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:49.840 has not been smooth, and there are months where I 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:52.280 simply have to remind them to pay me. And when 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:57.120 that paycheck doesn't come through, my very hard working program coordinator, 0:19:57.160 --> 0:19:59.280 it's not her fault, but she has been open support tickets. 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:01.359 She has to go through different levels of bureaucracy to 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:03.800 find out where the hold up is. And so what 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:08.399 that results in is people often times not getting significant 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:11.480 portions of their stipend and tell well into the beginning 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:14.440 of the first or second week of the month. UM. 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:17.080 I personally am been lucky enough to you know, build 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:21.000 up some savings living here UM, but many students, especially 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:23.760 our first year is coming right out of college, have 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:26.399 not been able to do that. And a lot of 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:28.240 times at the first of the month we have people, 0:20:28.400 --> 0:20:31.040 you know, people will come to me and say they 0:20:31.080 --> 0:20:32.879 just didn't they I don't know why my stipends and 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:34.560 I didn't work. I can't pay rent, or I can't 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:38.119 get groceries. And these issues have been going on. This 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:40.760 have not been one time things or sporadic things. These 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:43.720 are things that have been continuously going on for years. 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.240 And what we're really hoping for is that with the 0:20:47.280 --> 0:20:50.639 creation of this Student Researchers Union, that we will be 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:52.879 able to not just you know, send polite emails and 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:54.800 say hi, can you pay me if you get a chance, 0:20:55.760 --> 0:21:00.359 We will actually have a literal international union that will 0:21:00.440 --> 0:21:03.080 be sending those emails and say you know, you fix 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:05.040 this or by the terms of the contract, we get X, 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:08.000 Y and Z damages. UM, and we're hoping that that 0:21:08.119 --> 0:21:10.240 leads to improvements in the system as a as a whole, 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:12.960 because it will get expensive. So yeah, that is certainly 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:14.679 one of the reasons we formed s are you and 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:18.359 are after a brief vote to strike for recognition because 0:21:18.400 --> 0:21:23.640 the university ignored the employee religious part of California, which 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:26.920 resulted in some very spicy press releases from herbs which 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:30.520 is great. Um, But we did eventually get recognition and 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:32.399 and now hopefully in a couple in a month or so, 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:35.320 we'll have a contract. Yeah, to explain for people as 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:37.680 well who aren't familiar. If you're teaching right, you may 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:42.320 not have been paid over the summer in some positions, 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:44.480 like I know I was in mind, so like a 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:47.919 late payment in September or even wait until October, like 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:51.240 is you're already at the bottom of your savings, like 0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:56.480 there were there were full quarters that quarters at ECSD 0:21:56.560 --> 0:21:59.480 where like I lived in my car because it didn't 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:00.879 make it all the way through the summer and the 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:03.359 savings they had, you know, So it really is and 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:05.200 I'm sure there are a lot of still like and 0:22:05.320 --> 0:22:08.840 how it's graduate students at UCSD because of the cost 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:13.560 of living in the the waits are so divergent. Yeah, hey, Chris, 0:22:13.640 --> 0:22:16.040 you you know what won't make you live in your car? 0:22:16.840 --> 0:22:21.320 Oh God, there's no way that's It's going to be 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:31.560 the washes that Harry Patrol again, Todd Gloria. Okay, yeah, 0:22:31.560 --> 0:22:45.640 this has brought you by Landlords Joy's adverts and we're back. 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:47.960 And so what I wanted to talk about with some 0:22:48.040 --> 0:22:51.960 of the actions that have been taken by student organizations 0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:54.479 so far, and also some of the repercussions that have 0:22:54.520 --> 0:22:57.040 come from those actions, because again, student organizing is a 0:22:57.080 --> 0:22:59.640 little different, and I want people to understand that. So 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:03.560 maybe if it makes sense to start with this wildcats stright, 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:05.600 we can start there. If you want to start further back, 0:23:05.640 --> 0:23:09.199 then we can start fie it back to you. You know, 0:23:10.200 --> 0:23:13.679 is probably about the extent of my how far my 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:16.159 experience goes back, Um, But I can tell kind of 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:19.040 the story of that a little bit. Um. There was 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:22.280 a movement that we referred to as COLA, which stands 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:25.439 for a cost of living adjustment and convenient as very 0:23:25.440 --> 0:23:27.840 convenient acronym, which resulted in people coming to protest with 0:23:27.840 --> 0:23:29.639 empty bottles coke on a stick. And that was a 0:23:29.680 --> 0:23:33.320 really common science fantastic um. But that was a movement 0:23:33.400 --> 0:23:36.400 that started at the University of California, Santa Cruz. One 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:39.520 of the for people aren't familiar with, you see, it 0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:42.840 is really actually mini campuses together in one system. In 0:23:42.840 --> 0:23:45.760 this particular one started at our campus in Santa Cruz, 0:23:46.720 --> 0:23:49.720 UM and it was what is called a wildcats strike, 0:23:49.840 --> 0:23:52.640 which is if you're not failily unions that is um 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:56.360 UM at least in America, there are very uh careful 0:23:56.480 --> 0:23:58.760 rules that you have to follow of when exactly you 0:23:58.800 --> 0:24:01.600 are allowed to call a legally protected strike, and that's 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:03.760 often dependent on your contract or the label laws of 0:24:03.800 --> 0:24:07.199 your state. UM. But it is possible for workers to 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:11.640 get together without the explicit approval of their union and 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:15.960 uh take the added risk that involves to hold a 0:24:16.040 --> 0:24:19.639 labor stoppage. So I'm not sure of the exact number, 0:24:19.760 --> 0:24:22.520 but somewhere between fifty and a hundred or two hundred 0:24:22.600 --> 0:24:25.960 or so t a s um SO teaching assistance at 0:24:26.040 --> 0:24:29.720 the Santa Cruz campus decided to withhold teaching and also 0:24:29.840 --> 0:24:36.000 final exam and UH semester or sorry quarter grades H 0:24:36.160 --> 0:24:39.399 for a quarter in I believe this would have been 0:24:39.440 --> 0:24:45.840 fall or fall UM and they held UM. They held 0:24:45.880 --> 0:24:50.040 they essentially daily pickets and protests UM at their central 0:24:50.040 --> 0:24:54.360 insrance of their campus. And this resulted in quite an 0:24:54.359 --> 0:24:59.520 extreme response from Santa Cruz administration, University of Santa Cruise 0:24:59.520 --> 0:25:04.160 administration and UH they called in the California Highway Patrol. UM. 0:25:04.200 --> 0:25:07.560 Also there's will I've asked, I'll send this to christ 0:25:07.600 --> 0:25:09.560 and James Pulton the footnotes. But there is a Vice 0:25:09.640 --> 0:25:12.280 article where someone did a lot of public records request 0:25:12.320 --> 0:25:15.080 and found out that the FBI was also involved, or 0:25:15.080 --> 0:25:18.679 at least FBI provided technology was involved. UM. There may 0:25:18.720 --> 0:25:22.359 have been sort of counter terrorism UH units involved in 0:25:22.400 --> 0:25:25.840 the state in interesting ways UM. But essentially there was 0:25:25.880 --> 0:25:29.600 a highly militarized response to what was essentially a few 0:25:30.000 --> 0:25:34.520 grand students not doing grades. UM. So this response, the 0:25:34.560 --> 0:25:37.439 images that came out of this, people getting arrested for 0:25:37.560 --> 0:25:40.760 being in the street and such UM started to actually 0:25:40.840 --> 0:25:43.280 provoke sympathy actions across the rest of the campus and 0:25:43.280 --> 0:25:46.919 there was really a campus wide or system wide movement 0:25:47.320 --> 0:25:51.800 starting to build. And then March of happened, and almost 0:25:51.880 --> 0:25:55.520 all of us are labs shut down, the campuses shut down. UH, 0:25:55.640 --> 0:25:58.040 those of us who work from home could UM, those 0:25:58.040 --> 0:25:59.840 of us who couldn't often had you know, many others 0:26:00.000 --> 0:26:02.080 a will to deal with, and that kind of killed UH. 0:26:02.160 --> 0:26:06.000 The pandemic essentially killed that movement. But at the same time, UM, 0:26:06.040 --> 0:26:09.720 you know these uh U A w twist at five 0:26:09.720 --> 0:26:12.520 and you could get ten already existed. SRU was starting 0:26:12.520 --> 0:26:14.480 to get formed at this time. We actually managed to 0:26:14.520 --> 0:26:16.679 get car check recognition during the pandemic where no one 0:26:16.720 --> 0:26:18.600 could actually go to one central point and get cards. 0:26:18.600 --> 0:26:20.679 So I'm quite proud of that. So we sort of 0:26:20.720 --> 0:26:24.520 rebuilt off of kind of UM, sort of the ashes 0:26:24.560 --> 0:26:26.840 of that movement. And even though it was not UM 0:26:26.920 --> 0:26:29.240 and I personally supported, but even though it was not 0:26:29.880 --> 0:26:33.479 a university sort of excuse me, certainly not university supported, 0:26:33.560 --> 0:26:37.960 but union supported uh movement. UM. I think it really 0:26:37.960 --> 0:26:42.800 helped a kind of UM plant seeds for graduate students 0:26:42.800 --> 0:26:44.639 and post docs having some you know, some degree of 0:26:44.720 --> 0:26:47.000 labor consciousness. When I was doing walkthroughs to get people 0:26:47.000 --> 0:26:49.080 signed up for the union, get people just quote on 0:26:49.119 --> 0:26:51.479 the strike, they would say, you know, they haven't obviously 0:26:51.480 --> 0:26:53.320 been keeping track of all the barguing, but say, oh yeah, 0:26:53.359 --> 0:26:55.080 I remember, is this like in Santa Cruz. I remember 0:26:55.119 --> 0:26:57.480 what they did and people would be and be ready, 0:26:57.640 --> 0:27:01.040 you know, to get involved. So um, it was a 0:27:01.119 --> 0:27:05.800 deferred kind of benefit given the pandemic, but I think 0:27:05.840 --> 0:27:08.359 it helps get a lot of the energy that we 0:27:08.440 --> 0:27:11.399 have today. Yeah, that's great to see, actually, because I 0:27:11.480 --> 0:27:13.919 know we really struggled with sort of political consciousness on 0:27:13.960 --> 0:27:17.040 the on the among the grad students in my time 0:27:17.080 --> 0:27:18.960 at E. C. S D. And yeah, I guess it 0:27:19.000 --> 0:27:21.120 makes us like that they remember, Like I were talking 0:27:21.160 --> 0:27:23.280 to some people who were sort of involved with it, 0:27:23.320 --> 0:27:25.159 and like watching the videos coming out of here, like 0:27:25.200 --> 0:27:29.080 that was I think, like probably the most intense military 0:27:29.119 --> 0:27:31.560 responsive I think I've ever seen to a strike at 0:27:31.560 --> 0:27:36.200 the US. It was wild. Like, Yeah, the university chancellor, 0:27:36.520 --> 0:27:39.720 chancellor of Santa Cruz at that time bragged or I 0:27:39.960 --> 0:27:42.600 don't know if it was bragged or complained that they 0:27:42.600 --> 0:27:46.480 were spending three hundred thousand dollars a day on that response. Yeah, 0:27:46.960 --> 0:27:50.000 they went incredibly hard. And I want to kind of 0:27:50.000 --> 0:27:54.119 get into why, like the university is really really strongly 0:27:54.119 --> 0:27:58.800 strongly dislike strikes and partly because they rely heavily on 0:27:58.880 --> 0:28:02.280 underpaid graduate student labor, right and increasingly relying heavily on 0:28:02.359 --> 0:28:05.320 underpaid adjunct labor as well to take the place of 0:28:05.400 --> 0:28:09.560 these expensive tenure track positions. So, can we talk about 0:28:09.560 --> 0:28:12.080 a little bit about like what it means to strike 0:28:12.080 --> 0:28:14.080 as a grad student, because it's not the same to 0:28:14.080 --> 0:28:16.600 strike as a grad students is to strike if you 0:28:16.640 --> 0:28:19.280 work on a production lineup right, Like, it really can 0:28:19.760 --> 0:28:21.600 make a serious impact on your whole career, and it 0:28:21.640 --> 0:28:24.439 can make it a serious impact on your relationship preps 0:28:24.440 --> 0:28:27.440 with your with your supervisor or advisor or mentor, and 0:28:27.640 --> 0:28:30.320 so can you can you one of your both of 0:28:30.320 --> 0:28:32.479 you explained a little bit about the repercussion to come 0:28:32.520 --> 0:28:37.080 from striking as a graduate student. Yeah, I'm happy to 0:28:37.080 --> 0:28:39.800 share my thoughts. And then and then, um, tyl, you 0:28:39.840 --> 0:28:42.240 can maybe talk about what the what post docs are thinking? 0:28:42.920 --> 0:28:48.200 Um from the t a perspective, I think I don't 0:28:48.200 --> 0:28:50.520 want it. I'm not currently I'm currently a student researchers, 0:28:50.560 --> 0:28:53.320 so I'm not currently teaching. I think in that since 0:28:53.360 --> 0:28:55.280 it makes there's a little more cut and dry, it's 0:28:55.280 --> 0:28:57.080 you're not going to teach your discussion section and you're 0:28:57.080 --> 0:28:59.480 not going to grade your exams. As a very concrete 0:28:59.480 --> 0:29:01.840 things you can do that are sort of separate from 0:29:01.840 --> 0:29:05.200 your research work. For those of us paid to do research, 0:29:05.280 --> 0:29:08.720 it's a little bit um harder to figure out where 0:29:08.720 --> 0:29:11.680 exactly you're sometimes your labor for the university is, and 0:29:12.040 --> 0:29:15.920 where you're um uh kind of research and and and 0:29:15.960 --> 0:29:17.800 not wanting to sort of harm yourself. Like I know 0:29:17.840 --> 0:29:20.640 people who have planned their advancements to candidacy during this time, 0:29:20.680 --> 0:29:22.840 and I think they're still going through with that because 0:29:22.960 --> 0:29:24.960 we can say, well, that's more academic, that's more your 0:29:25.000 --> 0:29:29.640 personal kind of progress in life, and and so those 0:29:29.680 --> 0:29:33.440 sort of things will continue, um. But but I think 0:29:33.440 --> 0:29:37.160 it's one of the things, um that that's sort of 0:29:37.920 --> 0:29:43.800 um important, is is um sort of your day today 0:29:43.920 --> 0:29:47.600 work in the lab and not necessarily saying your research project, 0:29:47.640 --> 0:29:51.000 but on just sort of maintaining things, answering questions, communicating 0:29:51.000 --> 0:29:55.320 with collaborators, sharing your results with people, helping undergraduates in 0:29:55.360 --> 0:29:58.880 the lab, helping um, you know, prepare figures or prepare 0:29:59.040 --> 0:30:02.240 text for your advisor to submit grants and all these 0:30:02.280 --> 0:30:04.600 other things that are not necessarily like I am doing 0:30:04.600 --> 0:30:07.800 this particular you know thing for my degree UM, so 0:30:07.880 --> 0:30:09.840 I know a lot of people are worried about, especially 0:30:09.920 --> 0:30:13.480 because in the life sciences we have situations where we 0:30:13.520 --> 0:30:16.360 have experiments that go on for months and they cost 0:30:16.360 --> 0:30:18.120 tens of thousands of dollars to run, and if you 0:30:18.120 --> 0:30:20.080 miss a time point on that we're throwing months of 0:30:20.080 --> 0:30:22.360 your life and out of the window, and that it 0:30:22.480 --> 0:30:25.280 hurts yourself really more than the university. So it's been 0:30:25.320 --> 0:30:29.200 a I think, especially because organizing grad super researchers is 0:30:29.240 --> 0:30:33.760 something new, at least in America. UM. I think it's 0:30:33.800 --> 0:30:37.400 something that in the coming years will be kind of 0:30:37.440 --> 0:30:40.360 considered more and people will kind of I think I hope. 0:30:40.360 --> 0:30:42.400 What I hope is people learn from our whatever our 0:30:42.440 --> 0:30:44.640 experience happens to be next week when we walk out 0:30:45.440 --> 0:30:47.920 and start to kind of calibrate, what does it look like? 0:30:48.120 --> 0:30:50.240 What is what is an effective work stoppage for a 0:30:50.320 --> 0:30:53.440 researcher look like? UM, and I think people are are 0:30:53.520 --> 0:30:56.000 We've had a lot of discussions, We've had programmed meetings. 0:30:56.080 --> 0:30:57.760 A bunch of students from my program got together and 0:30:57.760 --> 0:30:59.840 talked about this UM and I think it might end 0:30:59.920 --> 0:31:02.200 up looking different for different people, but really what we're 0:31:02.200 --> 0:31:04.720 trying to communicate is is don't do something that's going 0:31:04.800 --> 0:31:09.360 to um, you know, damage yourself. Um. But but but 0:31:09.600 --> 0:31:12.120 do what you can to disrupt normal operations. Show up 0:31:12.120 --> 0:31:15.280 at the picket, um uh. And and make sure you 0:31:15.280 --> 0:31:18.360 you communicate, you know, to everyone and around you why 0:31:18.400 --> 0:31:21.200 you're leaving, and and and you know, cause as much 0:31:21.200 --> 0:31:24.120 disruption as you can. That's kind of what our our 0:31:24.160 --> 0:31:27.360 thinking is at the moment. Yeah, and I thin, guys, 0:31:27.360 --> 0:31:30.440 you wanted to add tied. Yeah, so I wanted to 0:31:30.480 --> 0:31:33.760 add that. UM. So for this one, this strike, I mean, 0:31:33.760 --> 0:31:36.240 the reason that we're doing it is because they're not 0:31:36.320 --> 0:31:39.240 coming to the table in good faith. So I was 0:31:39.240 --> 0:31:41.640 going to correct my numbers. So we had twenties seven 0:31:42.120 --> 0:31:45.760 UM complaints that we filed with the California Public Unemployment 0:31:45.760 --> 0:31:50.200 Relations Board, and six of those were actually official complaints 0:31:50.200 --> 0:31:53.080 to the University of California. And so this strike is 0:31:53.120 --> 0:31:56.560 a little different because it's you know, it's interesting to 0:31:56.600 --> 0:32:00.600 have to explain to other people why this is so important, 0:32:01.360 --> 0:32:03.960 especially in such a short time frame. And so for 0:32:04.040 --> 0:32:05.840 post docs, like on a day to day basis, we 0:32:05.880 --> 0:32:10.640 do so much research that every day matters, and our 0:32:10.680 --> 0:32:13.720 employment schedules aren't very long. So I say that post 0:32:13.720 --> 0:32:16.360 docs are generally in there for five years, but p 0:32:16.520 --> 0:32:17.920 I don't want to keep a post talk for a 0:32:18.000 --> 0:32:22.120 year or two or longer, especially like I've noticed a 0:32:22.120 --> 0:32:25.680 pattern here in academia in general that post docs it's 0:32:25.720 --> 0:32:27.760 some people prefer to keep them a year and two 0:32:27.840 --> 0:32:30.080 years because by the time you asked for pay raises 0:32:30.160 --> 0:32:32.240 or the time you ask for curd development and to 0:32:32.320 --> 0:32:34.520 get to your next stage, you're not worth it to 0:32:34.560 --> 0:32:37.800 them anymore, and they change you out. So when I 0:32:37.840 --> 0:32:39.920 come in as a postalk, each position, I've come in 0:32:40.320 --> 0:32:43.400 everyday mattered and setting up my research experiment, setting up 0:32:43.400 --> 0:32:45.520 my papers, setting up what I was going to do 0:32:45.560 --> 0:32:48.040 for the job search, because you don't have that much time. 0:32:48.080 --> 0:32:50.000 It takes you know, six to eight months to get 0:32:50.200 --> 0:32:54.040 get even an initial interview for a faculty job UM, 0:32:54.120 --> 0:32:55.920 and that's a rare thing that you would get anyway. 0:32:55.920 --> 0:32:58.400 I think about two percent of post talks become faculty 0:32:58.680 --> 0:33:01.880 at this point, and so we're giving up a lot 0:33:01.920 --> 0:33:05.480 of Yeah, it's really bleak, and so like right now, 0:33:06.040 --> 0:33:08.440 I think the fact that we authorize a strike based 0:33:08.480 --> 0:33:11.360 on the UM bad faith bargaining. We did that because 0:33:11.360 --> 0:33:13.479 like things are so important, but we know what we're 0:33:13.480 --> 0:33:16.320 gonna lose. So if we have to strike for weeks, 0:33:16.360 --> 0:33:19.120 that is lost experiments, that's lost time to do our 0:33:19.160 --> 0:33:23.280 publications be competitive for this competitive job field. Um. And 0:33:23.320 --> 0:33:25.280 also we're gonna let down a lot of people because 0:33:25.280 --> 0:33:27.960 we're kind of anchors in our lab for the undergraduates 0:33:27.960 --> 0:33:31.040 and the under and the graduate students and also the 0:33:31.440 --> 0:33:33.760 text in our lab. And so if we're gone, the 0:33:33.840 --> 0:33:35.800 lab just kind of die, especially if the grass dudits 0:33:35.880 --> 0:33:40.760 walk out too. UM. But I think we know that 0:33:41.320 --> 0:33:45.120 the value that I would get personally for my career, UM, 0:33:45.160 --> 0:33:47.960 it isn't worth it if I see not only myself 0:33:47.960 --> 0:33:49.800 suffering each year and not being able to make my 0:33:49.880 --> 0:33:52.800 rent enable to feed myself, like eating one mill a 0:33:52.880 --> 0:33:56.440 day is um not really great. And being able to 0:33:56.480 --> 0:33:59.560 afford one UM wardrobe this entire two years of employment 0:33:59.640 --> 0:34:02.320 is not it either. UM. And I'm a post doc 0:34:02.400 --> 0:34:04.560 and I see the graduate students who I was a 0:34:04.560 --> 0:34:07.520 graduate student two years ago. There's not a real border there, 0:34:08.120 --> 0:34:10.640 UM and seeing them suffer. You know, most of us 0:34:10.640 --> 0:34:12.560 post talks don't want to see anyone else have to 0:34:12.600 --> 0:34:15.200 go through that. So it's worth the lost time and 0:34:15.280 --> 0:34:17.400 it's kind of been calculable what I could say what 0:34:17.440 --> 0:34:20.879 we would lose because grants are so up in the air. 0:34:20.960 --> 0:34:23.840 But you know, we're talking millions of dollars for a 0:34:23.920 --> 0:34:27.000 grant cycle being lost if a post talk can't you know, 0:34:27.239 --> 0:34:31.160 submit the application. We're talking you know, uh what Alex said, 0:34:31.160 --> 0:34:34.320 how expensive dise equipment experiments are in these big labs 0:34:34.719 --> 0:34:39.080 UM in biology and engineering. So it's really immeasurable. And 0:34:39.120 --> 0:34:40.480 I think it's on the UC to come to the 0:34:40.480 --> 0:34:43.000 table and good faith and say, hey, let's not do 0:34:43.040 --> 0:34:46.200 that's that's not ruin their research and their teaching UM, 0:34:46.239 --> 0:34:49.240 because that's the thing that we're here to support UM. 0:34:49.280 --> 0:34:51.479 And I just want to say that overall, we're only 0:34:51.760 --> 0:34:54.080 less than one percent of u see's total budget. So 0:34:54.120 --> 0:34:56.160 what is it to give us a fair wage and 0:34:56.280 --> 0:34:58.879 a good housing so we can continue to not UM, 0:34:59.000 --> 0:35:01.239 to continue to con your door research and teaching and 0:35:01.320 --> 0:35:04.319 not have to go on strike and lose all of this. Yeah, yeah, 0:35:04.320 --> 0:35:07.160 I think it's very fair. You know what else, it 0:35:07.600 --> 0:35:11.120 only pays out one percent of their income to employee. 0:35:15.040 --> 0:35:19.399 The Washington State Higher Patrol no ites not they pay Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:35:19.480 --> 0:35:33.600 it's disappointing. Isn't it. Yeah, we're back. Yeah, So I 0:35:33.640 --> 0:35:36.279 think you've done a really excellent job of explaining sort 0:35:36.280 --> 0:35:39.600 of what's at stake and what people can stand to lose. 0:35:39.680 --> 0:35:42.280 I know it can be very confusing. Also as a teacher, 0:35:42.320 --> 0:35:44.879 I will add, like what do you do when you're 0:35:45.000 --> 0:35:47.360 you're not supposed to communicate right like, so, like what 0:35:47.640 --> 0:35:50.040 about when your students email you? That can be very difficult, 0:35:50.200 --> 0:35:53.359 or especially if it comes towards the time when you're 0:35:53.360 --> 0:35:56.200 writing application letters or your writing letters of support for 0:35:56.280 --> 0:35:58.160 your your b A. Students who want to go into 0:35:58.200 --> 0:36:01.120 an m A. Or PhD program, like you don't want 0:36:01.280 --> 0:36:05.040 like many of us teach as much out of vocation 0:36:05.320 --> 0:36:07.880 as for the thirty ye old grand a year. We 0:36:07.880 --> 0:36:09.399 can make it a place where the cost of living 0:36:09.440 --> 0:36:12.799 is insane, and so like we want to help those 0:36:12.800 --> 0:36:15.200 people because we care about our students and and so 0:36:15.239 --> 0:36:17.720 it can be very hard for us to go on strike. 0:36:17.880 --> 0:36:19.720 I will say that we're very fortunate in the community 0:36:19.719 --> 0:36:22.400 college district here, which is a different system, and for 0:36:22.400 --> 0:36:26.600 people who aren't aware it's an entirely different university system, 0:36:26.880 --> 0:36:29.560 we have a very strong union and as a result, 0:36:29.600 --> 0:36:32.120 our I junk faculty here are I believe, some of 0:36:32.120 --> 0:36:34.840 the best paid in the country, the teacher the community 0:36:34.880 --> 0:36:38.640 college sometimes and it's exclusively thanks to a strong union 0:36:38.960 --> 0:36:42.200 and faculty being willing to back up that union. So 0:36:42.400 --> 0:36:45.960 like it does work, which is nice to see. But 0:36:46.360 --> 0:36:48.160 let's talk about some of the actions that have been 0:36:48.160 --> 0:36:51.840 taken already and understand it. Some some folks occupied like 0:36:51.880 --> 0:36:54.960 a very busy intersection earlier this year in the spring, 0:36:55.040 --> 0:36:57.600 right you want to talk about that. Yeah, that was 0:36:58.239 --> 0:37:03.800 the action that we had um UM back in April 0:37:04.360 --> 0:37:08.520 UM to sort of raise awareness of the you know, 0:37:08.600 --> 0:37:10.279 issues with bargaining and some of the other things that 0:37:10.280 --> 0:37:13.040 we're going out at that time UM. And I was 0:37:13.120 --> 0:37:16.800 really impressive how well it went, actually UM in terms 0:37:16.800 --> 0:37:18.920 of the number of students who came out, number who 0:37:18.920 --> 0:37:20.719 are actually willing to participate in that. But yeah, we 0:37:20.760 --> 0:37:24.880 gotta several hundred people altogether marched down to UM the 0:37:24.920 --> 0:37:27.959 intersection for our San Diego listeners. That's via La Joya 0:37:28.040 --> 0:37:29.799 and Lajya Village Drive. Just so you can get a 0:37:29.840 --> 0:37:32.319 picture of how important of an intersection this was. Those 0:37:32.360 --> 0:37:34.680 of you who know it, UM and did not allow 0:37:34.719 --> 0:37:37.279 any cars at the intersection for an entire rush hour, 0:37:37.920 --> 0:37:47.239 which was fantastic. UM and we did Yeah, yeah, I 0:37:47.360 --> 0:37:51.320 took uh. I hope that UM San Diego p D 0:37:51.440 --> 0:37:54.120 build UCSD for that because they had about fifty officers 0:37:54.160 --> 0:37:58.680 controlling traffic to helicopters. UM, it was quier response. I 0:37:58.880 --> 0:38:01.000 talked to an undercover up on the bridge over the 0:38:01.080 --> 0:38:04.440 highway they had. He was upset that he was missing something, 0:38:04.719 --> 0:38:10.000 some baseball game or something. I don't know. I could 0:38:10.040 --> 0:38:13.400 have had a real job just left. Yeah, I'm actually 0:38:14.320 --> 0:38:16.520 staring at that intersection right now. And if I could 0:38:16.520 --> 0:38:19.960 tell you how busy it is, Like we were terrified 0:38:20.000 --> 0:38:23.319 of what, Like safety was the most important thing, and 0:38:23.400 --> 0:38:24.960 I think we did a good job being sure everyone 0:38:25.000 --> 0:38:28.000 was safe. But like it's busy, it's it is a 0:38:28.000 --> 0:38:32.960 heartline over your My first day in America, I was 0:38:33.080 --> 0:38:35.359 walking with another grats to try and find some food 0:38:35.360 --> 0:38:37.320 and we tried to cross that road, goes stuck in 0:38:37.360 --> 0:38:42.960 the middle, got to jaywalking ticket and right I knew 0:38:43.000 --> 0:38:45.000 I had made a great choice in coming to California 0:38:45.040 --> 0:38:48.080 at that time. Yeah, that is that road takes like 0:38:48.120 --> 0:38:50.000 if you want to cross all three ways, because it's 0:38:50.160 --> 0:38:51.920 one of our one of our stupid California roads. We 0:38:51.920 --> 0:38:53.960 can only cross the intersection on three sides, so we're 0:38:54.000 --> 0:38:55.600 gonna go all the way around. That's going to be 0:38:55.680 --> 0:38:59.759 like five six, seven minutes winning at crosswalks. It's it's God. 0:39:00.000 --> 0:39:02.239 But but that's that's for maybe a different podcast, but 0:39:03.120 --> 0:39:06.359 nightmares here in San Diego. UM. I think there's one 0:39:06.360 --> 0:39:08.640 other action that we had that I would really want 0:39:08.680 --> 0:39:11.280 to highlight and and this was about, you know, related 0:39:11.280 --> 0:39:13.400 to a post dox. So maybe maybe Tyler can kind 0:39:13.400 --> 0:39:17.960 of film the details UM about the the action we 0:39:18.000 --> 0:39:21.520 had for UM for the UH postox redence. I can't. 0:39:21.520 --> 0:39:25.239 I can't. I'm blanking on her name, but made maybe 0:39:25.280 --> 0:39:27.880 able to talk about There's been so many post docs 0:39:27.880 --> 0:39:30.760 and actions. So this is a really horrible case where 0:39:31.080 --> 0:39:33.560 someone who you know had brought up that there was 0:39:33.719 --> 0:39:38.000 data UH ethics issues in their lab, which obviously, as 0:39:38.080 --> 0:39:41.279 any post soccer graduate student telling your boss that they're 0:39:41.280 --> 0:39:44.719 doing something wrong never goes well. UM, but this person 0:39:44.800 --> 0:39:47.360 was bringing up this issue. This person also was U 0:39:48.120 --> 0:39:51.839 was pregnant and UM at that point the person, once 0:39:51.880 --> 0:39:55.200 they found out that this person was pregnant, UM had decided, oh, well, 0:39:55.239 --> 0:39:58.480 you need to leave by the end of the year, UM, 0:39:58.600 --> 0:40:00.879 which would make the make it to where the person 0:40:00.920 --> 0:40:04.120 would get deported because this was an international scholar UM 0:40:04.280 --> 0:40:08.600 in their third trime. Master UM, you know, in in January, 0:40:08.719 --> 0:40:13.560 and so it was income more insurance during her third trimester. Yeah, 0:40:13.600 --> 0:40:15.600 and so Alex, if if you have a good memory 0:40:15.600 --> 0:40:17.239 of the action, I'll let you speak about it, because 0:40:17.239 --> 0:40:19.840 it was pretty awesome. Yeah, it was pretty great. We 0:40:19.880 --> 0:40:23.480 got a ton of people to rally in the health 0:40:23.520 --> 0:40:27.680 sciences area of campus. UM people essentially set up little 0:40:27.680 --> 0:40:32.040 mini pickets of the relevant buildings UM basically not blocking 0:40:32.040 --> 0:40:34.480 the insurance, but making sure everyone went in New exactly 0:40:34.920 --> 0:40:37.480 you know why we were there and what the issue was. 0:40:37.520 --> 0:40:39.560 And they were eventually towards the end of the day. 0:40:39.560 --> 0:40:41.120 I was I wasn't there at that point, but they 0:40:41.120 --> 0:40:46.800 were able to actually get up to UM where UM 0:40:46.920 --> 0:40:49.880 the chair of her department's office in lab were UM 0:40:49.920 --> 0:40:51.840 and I there was nothing threatening that went on, but 0:40:51.880 --> 0:40:55.400 I do believe the cops were called nonetheless UM and 0:40:55.400 --> 0:40:58.600 and my understanding was this is just rumored. But he 0:40:58.719 --> 0:41:01.040 told someone that he really to them to leave because 0:41:01.080 --> 0:41:03.120 he had to get to the bathroom and didn't want 0:41:03.160 --> 0:41:06.600 to talk to the students. So that was funny part 0:41:06.600 --> 0:41:08.960 of the story. Um. But they did get him on 0:41:09.440 --> 0:41:11.600 video because they eventually were able to talk to the 0:41:11.680 --> 0:41:14.560 chair of the department and got him on video saying 0:41:14.800 --> 0:41:17.320 I think this person deserves an extension of their contract. 0:41:17.360 --> 0:41:21.120 And that day or two later UCSD did actually award 0:41:21.719 --> 0:41:25.520 this post doc um and extension of her contract. But yeah, 0:41:25.560 --> 0:41:27.920 that this is an incident that you never would have 0:41:27.920 --> 0:41:31.640 seen the light of day, um unless this had been raised, Uh, 0:41:31.760 --> 0:41:34.600 unless we hadn't already had this kind of activists kind 0:41:34.600 --> 0:41:36.960 of consciousness going on because of the ongoing bargaining and 0:41:37.000 --> 0:41:39.480 the union was able to post union was able to 0:41:39.520 --> 0:41:42.520 win kind of I think out of a really terrible situation, 0:41:42.560 --> 0:41:45.239 I think salvage probably one of the best outcome. She'll 0:41:45.280 --> 0:41:47.960 be able to have her child here um and look 0:41:48.000 --> 0:41:50.920 for new jobs in the meantime to um, you know 0:41:51.000 --> 0:41:53.200 whatever her family wants to do extended visa or or 0:41:53.280 --> 0:41:57.480 go back to their original country. But they essentially they 0:41:57.480 --> 0:42:01.360 have security, uh, some measure of security now which wouldn't 0:42:01.360 --> 0:42:05.880 have happened about uh raising a quite a disruption over it. 0:42:06.840 --> 0:42:08.279 And I also want to say that this was a 0:42:08.320 --> 0:42:11.200 post doc and the grad students came out to protect 0:42:11.239 --> 0:42:14.120 a post doc. So all these invisible lines at the 0:42:14.200 --> 0:42:16.840 university draws like obviously there were post docs there too, 0:42:16.840 --> 0:42:19.720 but if you think about the number of graduate students, 0:42:19.760 --> 0:42:22.120 like they are the immune system that has come out 0:42:22.120 --> 0:42:24.800 and saved a bunch of post docs through these actions. 0:42:24.840 --> 0:42:27.560 There was another action with someone that was being let 0:42:27.600 --> 0:42:30.480 go within four months of their employment, um in an 0:42:30.520 --> 0:42:33.040 inappropriate way. This person was kind of using their lab 0:42:33.120 --> 0:42:36.360 as that research mill I talked about only really hired 0:42:36.400 --> 0:42:38.720 women post docs and really did not treat them well, 0:42:39.360 --> 0:42:44.040 um despite doing research in women's health. And the grad 0:42:44.080 --> 0:42:46.520 students also came out for that, and we got to 0:42:46.960 --> 0:42:50.239 save that person from getting immediately fired and they're better 0:42:50.280 --> 0:42:53.520 off man. Hell yeah, yeah, it's great. I think that 0:42:53.640 --> 0:42:57.200 sort of directity is super important. And yeah, is the 0:42:57.239 --> 0:42:59.960 only thing to stop to university from just rampidly exploiting 0:43:00.000 --> 0:43:02.200 if you want, apart from like a hundred and fifty 0:43:02.239 --> 0:43:05.319 people at the very top. Actually, on that note, can 0:43:05.360 --> 0:43:08.720 I ask have you been working with like I guess, 0:43:09.840 --> 0:43:13.440 what's the tactical name for them, like the like the 0:43:13.640 --> 0:43:17.839 like the the other non student unions on campus. Oh, 0:43:17.880 --> 0:43:22.040 it's like a f TEMs. Yeah yeah, like yeah, yeah. 0:43:23.160 --> 0:43:27.040 They Unfortunately most of the unions don't have sympathy strike 0:43:27.239 --> 0:43:30.879 or uh those sorts of things in their contract if 0:43:30.920 --> 0:43:35.360 if they cannot do an official strike if they're under contract. 0:43:35.440 --> 0:43:38.239 But yeah, they've definitely been helping in terms of kind 0:43:38.280 --> 0:43:41.640 of raising consciousness and awareness. I know, the ones that 0:43:41.880 --> 0:43:45.920 have the ability to, um, you know, maybe cancel their 0:43:45.960 --> 0:43:48.480 classes or use class time to teach about the strike 0:43:48.600 --> 0:43:53.200 or you know, do things like that have been um. Uh, 0:43:53.239 --> 0:43:56.200 they're they're that they're planning to do that. Um. What's 0:43:56.239 --> 0:43:58.240 nice as well is that this isn't really a union, 0:43:58.280 --> 0:44:01.480 but there's kind of a non university affiliated sort of 0:44:01.800 --> 0:44:05.719 group of faculty who you know, advocate for for for 0:44:05.880 --> 0:44:08.799 changes across the entire campus, and they're organizing a very 0:44:08.840 --> 0:44:12.360 large petition and letter writing campaign from faculty members supporting 0:44:13.120 --> 0:44:15.720 our action, which I think is is really critical because 0:44:16.560 --> 0:44:19.600 the university won't listen to us, but they may listen 0:44:19.680 --> 0:44:22.919 to if you get to a critical massive of professors 0:44:23.440 --> 0:44:26.880 supporting what we're doing. UM. So there's been uh, you know, 0:44:27.000 --> 0:44:29.560 not universal certainly, but but there's been a great deal 0:44:29.560 --> 0:44:32.480 of solidarity. But even coming from uh some of the 0:44:32.480 --> 0:44:34.560 people who who the university I think has relied on 0:44:34.600 --> 0:44:40.080 to be more on their side, which is the professors, 0:44:40.120 --> 0:44:43.520 like the Faculty Association. I think that's pretty awesome because 0:44:43.960 --> 0:44:45.680 you can imagine that you see, doesn't want them to 0:44:45.719 --> 0:44:50.239 ever unionize, but they obviously see the leaky pipeline where 0:44:50.239 --> 0:44:52.680 grass students are, you know, either not staying in their 0:44:52.680 --> 0:44:56.200 programs or post talks aren't coming. And you just you know, 0:44:56.200 --> 0:44:57.200 what you happen to have at the end of that 0:44:57.280 --> 0:45:00.120 is people that have generational wealth um at the end 0:45:00.120 --> 0:45:02.319 of it, who happened to stay in these programs. And 0:45:02.600 --> 0:45:04.239 I think that's what really motive the faculty to come 0:45:04.239 --> 0:45:06.920 out and say something because like you see, it says, oh, 0:45:07.040 --> 0:45:10.320 we support equity university, but then they have seen constantly 0:45:10.320 --> 0:45:16.560 the university not do anything materially to change that. Yeah, yeah, 0:45:16.560 --> 0:45:18.200 it's good. It's good to see the fact that he's 0:45:18.200 --> 0:45:22.879 shooting up. And again that's it's sort of that's that's 0:45:22.880 --> 0:45:25.160 how we fix these things, right, is by staking together 0:45:25.239 --> 0:45:28.839 with sort of dearity, with organizing. So maybe to finish up, 0:45:28.920 --> 0:45:30.560 if we talk about what next week is going to 0:45:30.680 --> 0:45:34.160 look like, what next week might look like, I guess 0:45:34.440 --> 0:45:35.920 or I guess it'll it'll be this week by the 0:45:35.960 --> 0:45:38.200 time this comes out, yeah yeah, yeah yeah, So what 0:45:38.280 --> 0:45:40.319 can people look for and the on the timeline from 0:45:40.400 --> 0:45:45.040 u c s D from the university or from from 0:45:45.080 --> 0:45:47.799 from from the from the strike yeah, that's strike. Yeah. Well, 0:45:47.840 --> 0:45:53.520 we'll have a number of pickets throughout campus UM mostly 0:45:53.560 --> 0:45:55.719 kind of trying to keep them geographically oriented, so everyone 0:45:55.760 --> 0:45:57.440 from the surrounding buildings just go to you know, one 0:45:57.560 --> 0:46:00.520 one specific spot. We've were doing, you know, sign up, organizing, 0:46:00.520 --> 0:46:03.160 strike pay, all those sorts of typical things have been 0:46:03.200 --> 0:46:07.360 going on this week. UM. And the walkout begins November 0:46:08.760 --> 0:46:12.080 for across you know, not just UCSD but all the campuses. 0:46:12.160 --> 0:46:17.120 So that's our total um UM bargaining unit membership across 0:46:17.120 --> 0:46:21.080 the three unions is for people of those voted on 0:46:21.080 --> 0:46:24.720 our strikeout vote voted yes. So we're expecting a pretty 0:46:24.719 --> 0:46:27.400 significant turnout of that entire membership to be on the 0:46:27.400 --> 0:46:31.880 picket line. UM. So that will there will be um, 0:46:31.920 --> 0:46:33.719 you know, those t as who are walking out will 0:46:33.760 --> 0:46:36.000 be that that will be the first disruption university feels 0:46:36.000 --> 0:46:38.280 before they feel a research disruption. They will very clearly 0:46:38.280 --> 0:46:40.880 see the teaching disruption and exams not taking place, grades 0:46:40.920 --> 0:46:44.560 not being entered, UH sections not being taught across every 0:46:44.600 --> 0:46:50.719 single campus and UM and that will certainly be UM 0:46:50.920 --> 0:46:54.879 UH something that they will UM have to deal with 0:46:55.040 --> 0:46:58.080 and and hopefully the size of the disruption in the 0:46:58.080 --> 0:47:01.440 first few days will convince them to come to the 0:47:01.440 --> 0:47:05.880 bargaining table in a reasonable way UM. And if not, 0:47:06.000 --> 0:47:12.080 we are prepared to continue until they do. And the 0:47:12.120 --> 0:47:14.840 other interesting part about what's gonna happen next week is 0:47:14.840 --> 0:47:18.040 that this is UM a picket line that is going 0:47:18.120 --> 0:47:21.879 to be not just including you know, researchers and instructors, 0:47:21.880 --> 0:47:23.960 but also people that support us. So there's a big 0:47:23.960 --> 0:47:27.840 conference downtown for a lot of neuroscientists and UM it's 0:47:27.880 --> 0:47:30.839 it's called SFN. I can't remember what that stands for, UM, 0:47:30.880 --> 0:47:32.320 but a lot of them are actually coming to the 0:47:32.360 --> 0:47:36.759 picket line to support us. I didn't know about that. 0:47:36.760 --> 0:47:40.120 That's great, Yeah, yeah, it's I think that's pretty exciting. 0:47:40.120 --> 0:47:42.120 I didn't know it was in San Diego, but UM, 0:47:42.160 --> 0:47:44.239 they're gonna be here and also, you know, vouch for 0:47:44.320 --> 0:47:47.040 us because you see does like we are the leading 0:47:47.040 --> 0:47:49.319 research group and we contribute to a lot of the 0:47:49.320 --> 0:47:52.680 research that are at these meetings. Anyway. UM. There's also 0:47:52.719 --> 0:47:55.279 going to be it's a child friendly picket line and 0:47:55.360 --> 0:47:57.840 for people with access needs, we're gonna have um, you know, 0:47:58.000 --> 0:48:01.400 virtual picketing and you'll know what that looks like. UM. 0:48:01.440 --> 0:48:04.000 It's still being developed, but I think that's pretty exciting. 0:48:04.000 --> 0:48:06.600 As someone you know, with a disability to myself, it's 0:48:06.640 --> 0:48:10.520 exciting that other people can contribute to that. Yeah, it's 0:48:10.600 --> 0:48:13.440 very cool to you guys to do that. It's very cool. 0:48:13.640 --> 0:48:15.759 How can people help, how can we support you? How 0:48:15.800 --> 0:48:19.320 can people find you? On the internet? Yeah, So, I 0:48:19.320 --> 0:48:21.240 think if you want to keep up with the strike news, 0:48:21.280 --> 0:48:23.759 there's three Twitter accounts, the s r U, you a 0:48:24.000 --> 0:48:27.080 w u W and you a W two week six five. 0:48:27.280 --> 0:48:29.000 I think they kind of share a lot of the 0:48:29.000 --> 0:48:31.600 same content sometimes because we're all kind of doing this together. 0:48:31.680 --> 0:48:34.800 But that's a good place to keep track of the news. 0:48:35.239 --> 0:48:38.279 I know there is a link to UM. There's a 0:48:38.360 --> 0:48:41.600 they've set up a Hardship strike fund. UM. I don't 0:48:41.600 --> 0:48:44.319 have that link off top of my head, but if 0:48:44.400 --> 0:48:48.160 you put the yeah to us later and if you 0:48:48.200 --> 0:48:50.960 go to fare you see now dot org it'll have 0:48:51.000 --> 0:48:53.359 all the information about what's happening, but also those type 0:48:53.400 --> 0:48:55.920 of links to UM. So if you want some contact, 0:48:56.360 --> 0:49:01.080 so it's pretty good. Yeah, and how about youtubo personally? 0:49:01.120 --> 0:49:03.120 Would you like to share your personal Twitter so or 0:49:03.160 --> 0:49:08.680 do you just want to stick with the the organizational once? Um, 0:49:08.840 --> 0:49:10.719 I would love to. I promise I'm not that fun. 0:49:10.760 --> 0:49:16.080 But minus Tyler Bell PhD. That's my dad. Yeah, and 0:49:16.160 --> 0:49:19.480 I'm Alex t Winzl on Twitter. I once this is over, 0:49:19.520 --> 0:49:21.560 I'll probably go back to tweeting entirely about my work 0:49:21.600 --> 0:49:27.000 and pictures of buses. Twitter Alex, Yeah is a high 0:49:27.080 --> 0:49:31.520 value follow. Thank you. Alex gives live updates about transit 0:49:31.600 --> 0:49:34.799 and it's exciting. You see a train, it's all good. 0:49:36.600 --> 0:49:39.000 It pretty like hits at like five year old child. 0:49:39.440 --> 0:49:41.399 We have pretty much of buses in San Diego. Now 0:49:41.400 --> 0:49:44.840 what can I say here? Yeah? All right, thank you 0:49:44.880 --> 0:49:46.560 so much of your time, both of you. I really 0:49:46.600 --> 0:49:48.680 appreciate it. Best to luck next week. Maybe I'll come 0:49:48.760 --> 0:49:51.560 up and bring you, I know, some souper like like 0:49:51.840 --> 0:49:54.120 an oil can that we can start firing on campus 0:49:54.239 --> 0:49:59.000 or something. Love it. Yeah, have one here, let's do it. 0:49:59.280 --> 0:50:03.239 I'm that all right? Yeah, best of black and we'll 0:50:03.440 --> 0:50:06.000 look forward to hearing what happens. Thank you so much 0:50:06.040 --> 0:50:09.680 for thanks so much for talking to us. Hello podcast fans. 0:50:10.320 --> 0:50:11.920 I know you got to the end of the episode 0:50:11.920 --> 0:50:14.560 and you were thinking, not enough James, not enough strikes, 0:50:15.120 --> 0:50:18.680 not enough UCSD. So lucky you. I've been up to 0:50:18.800 --> 0:50:22.319 since you see San Diego today, and I've recorded with 0:50:22.360 --> 0:50:25.839 Tyler and Alex at the strike and we got some 0:50:25.840 --> 0:50:28.480 some audio of the strike going on as well. It 0:50:28.520 --> 0:50:30.600 was really amazing, really incredible to see that many people 0:50:30.600 --> 0:50:32.879 out never thought I to see that u CSD. So 0:50:33.040 --> 0:50:35.839 without further ado here made view with them all right, 0:50:36.680 --> 0:50:39.319 So here with Tyling Alex again, this time with more 0:50:39.360 --> 0:50:44.319 background noise. We're at the strike now. How many people 0:50:44.320 --> 0:50:47.960 are here roughly oh Man somewhere, probably around at least 0:50:47.960 --> 0:50:51.040 a couple of thousand right right now. Definitely a couple 0:50:51.040 --> 0:50:54.200 of thousand people out here. It's really impressive. Like I've 0:50:54.239 --> 0:50:55.799 read to u c s D if you haven't take 0:50:55.880 --> 0:50:57.279 that up yet, and like we did not get into 0:50:57.320 --> 0:51:00.160 so many people even when like people started hanging New 0:51:00.200 --> 0:51:03.880 Season around campus. I did. I didn't think so I 0:51:03.920 --> 0:51:08.719 did again. It is genuinely very impressive. And what's been happening, um, 0:51:08.760 --> 0:51:10.600 I think things have gone really well so far this 0:51:10.600 --> 0:51:13.200 since day two as we're recording this that we've been 0:51:13.200 --> 0:51:16.080 on strike. Um. There has been some progress of the 0:51:16.120 --> 0:51:18.400 bargaining table that I've heard, UM, but we do know 0:51:18.560 --> 0:51:20.759 that you see is going to try to drag this out. 0:51:20.800 --> 0:51:23.400 They think that they can outlast our momentum. But so 0:51:23.440 --> 0:51:24.919 far as you can really hear from the noise behind 0:51:24.960 --> 0:51:27.640 us and see all the different you know, uh, thousands 0:51:27.680 --> 0:51:29.960 of people converging from all the pict locations at across 0:51:29.960 --> 0:51:31.640 campus that they've been at since eight in the morning, 0:51:32.040 --> 0:51:35.279 I think our energy is going strong. Where do you think, Tyler? Yeah, 0:51:35.280 --> 0:51:37.600 so I think the energy is really strong here today. Uh. 0:51:37.640 --> 0:51:39.839 The UC did not expect us to come on day two, 0:51:40.160 --> 0:51:42.319 at which we know because at bargaining they canceled our 0:51:42.400 --> 0:51:45.120 meetings for today, um, because they didn't expect us show up. 0:51:45.120 --> 0:51:49.440 But somehow magically a meeting immerged around two o'clock today. 0:51:49.560 --> 0:51:51.359 And it may be due to the fact that two 0:51:51.360 --> 0:51:53.880 thousand people are out here pretty piste uh and one 0:51:53.920 --> 0:51:56.480 a fair contract. But yeah, I think the momentum it's 0:51:56.480 --> 0:51:59.840 pretty high. We actually did more disruption today, going directly 0:52:00.000 --> 0:52:02.160 talking to the deans and the faculty and screaming in 0:52:02.200 --> 0:52:04.960 their offices as I sat really comfy. But I'll say, yeah, 0:52:05.000 --> 0:52:07.480 first floor seminars didn't go well today, I'll put it 0:52:07.520 --> 0:52:10.880 that way. All right, there was something that I know 0:52:11.200 --> 0:52:13.960 the universe did about like intimidation and un friend lavorite practices, 0:52:14.000 --> 0:52:20.120 and you come to yeah, I can talk to generalities. UM, 0:52:20.160 --> 0:52:23.200 there's uh, well, the labor law that governs us is 0:52:23.200 --> 0:52:25.880 IS is a little bit complicated because some of us 0:52:25.920 --> 0:52:29.200 also receive, uh course credit for the work that we 0:52:29.280 --> 0:52:32.760 do that is protected under activity that protects our strike activity, 0:52:32.800 --> 0:52:35.080 which is a little bit of an anti labor practice 0:52:35.080 --> 0:52:36.719 in and of itself. There's no reason I have to 0:52:36.719 --> 0:52:38.959 sign up for twelve credits of just existing doing work. 0:52:39.080 --> 0:52:41.279 That doesn't make any particular sense, but it's the way 0:52:41.280 --> 0:52:44.239 the inversity run things. So, UM, there has been some 0:52:44.280 --> 0:52:47.040 emails that are sent out that are are questionable legal 0:52:47.080 --> 0:52:50.400 correctness as to whether, um, we can be hurt in 0:52:50.480 --> 0:52:53.040 terms of our academic standing for participating on the strike. 0:52:53.239 --> 0:52:55.600 That is definitely not true. UM is if we are 0:52:55.719 --> 0:52:59.319 if the is activity that's governed under the what our 0:52:59.400 --> 0:53:01.640 union is sending us for UM. So we know we've 0:53:01.640 --> 0:53:03.319 had some issues with that. Tyler, I guess you could 0:53:03.320 --> 0:53:05.520 talk about maybe some other examples that have come out. 0:53:06.560 --> 0:53:09.520 It's on the postox side right now. The university has 0:53:09.560 --> 0:53:12.160 released like an f a Q of sorts in an 0:53:12.200 --> 0:53:14.520 email where it says, oh, well, you'll have to tell 0:53:14.560 --> 0:53:17.520 the niage that your postox aren't doing research and that 0:53:17.560 --> 0:53:19.680 they are funding needs to get pulled. But that's kind 0:53:19.680 --> 0:53:22.240 of a joke. There's no like reporting mechanism for that. 0:53:22.520 --> 0:53:25.120 It's more like a stipend for a living um. So 0:53:25.360 --> 0:53:28.439 we're telling people just to stay strong and uh, people 0:53:28.480 --> 0:53:30.799 see you kind of pass like the threats that they're making, 0:53:30.800 --> 0:53:32.759 and a lot of faculty see through it too. Okay, 0:53:33.480 --> 0:53:36.759 we just intercepted you. When you're going somewhere else, you 0:53:36.800 --> 0:53:39.120 would you like to introduce yourself? All right? So them 0:53:39.239 --> 0:53:43.239 post doc um, I'm pretty new in your C s C. 0:53:43.400 --> 0:53:46.640 I joined in April, and I came here having already 0:53:46.640 --> 0:53:49.600 done another post doc and a PhD in Europe. I 0:53:49.760 --> 0:53:52.480 joined the union almost instantly when I came here, since 0:53:52.600 --> 0:53:58.439 i've I was basically horrified, for lack of a better 0:53:58.480 --> 0:54:00.399 way to put it, so, I studied in the EU 0:54:00.520 --> 0:54:04.239 for ten years and my experience of academia is what 0:54:04.360 --> 0:54:10.280 I experienced there, which was decent working conditions, being able 0:54:10.320 --> 0:54:13.160 to save money, not having to spend fifty few salary 0:54:13.160 --> 0:54:18.000 on ransom. When I came here and experienced post stock life, 0:54:18.080 --> 0:54:20.359 I couldn't believe it. So I believe. I met Tyler 0:54:20.400 --> 0:54:21.799 when I came here for the first time and we 0:54:21.840 --> 0:54:27.319 did this orientation that was awesome and awesome horrifying at 0:54:27.320 --> 0:54:29.400 the same time. Sorry, it was awesome to meet you 0:54:29.520 --> 0:54:32.160 because I realized it was then that I learned how 0:54:32.200 --> 0:54:34.640 a labor union worked. My knowledge of labor unions was 0:54:35.280 --> 0:54:37.600 minimal up until the point that I moved here, so 0:54:37.680 --> 0:54:39.800 minimal that I didn't even know what labor unions in 0:54:39.840 --> 0:54:42.480 the EU functioned like until I came here and realized, 0:54:42.480 --> 0:54:44.759 oh my god, we are actually lucky to have a 0:54:44.840 --> 0:54:48.200 union that supports postdocs, and this is not the case 0:54:48.200 --> 0:54:50.439 in a lot of places in the US. Yeah, yeah, 0:54:50.480 --> 0:54:53.200 that's so. How has the strike action gone so far? 0:54:55.480 --> 0:54:58.520 It's been crazy. We've been planning this for so long. 0:54:58.719 --> 0:55:01.279 It's a bit surreal to be part of FIT. I 0:55:01.320 --> 0:55:05.200 think it's been going great. It's been very energizing, and 0:55:05.239 --> 0:55:07.480 it's been intense. Yeah, it's hard, right, None of us 0:55:07.520 --> 0:55:09.640 really want to be out here and strike, and the 0:55:09.680 --> 0:55:13.360 fact that so many people are putting work on hold 0:55:13.440 --> 0:55:17.080 just speaks to the intensity and seriousness of the problem 0:55:17.160 --> 0:55:20.160 and what we're striking for. Yeah, yeah, I think that's 0:55:20.239 --> 0:55:22.080 very true. It's really impressive. How many people here I 0:55:22.160 --> 0:55:29.200 can't over Yeah some time. Yeah, very impressive. So let's see. Look, 0:55:29.480 --> 0:55:32.480 you guys know how the bargaining has gone and what 0:55:32.520 --> 0:55:35.359 we can expect from here. Well, what we would like 0:55:35.520 --> 0:55:37.279 would be for the U SEE to meet us at 0:55:37.280 --> 0:55:40.480 the bargaining table and give us a fair contract. But 0:55:40.760 --> 0:55:46.880 UM repeating that ad infinite UM bobby with whole labors 0:55:47.080 --> 0:55:49.760 is the plan thus far. But what's actually been happening 0:55:49.880 --> 0:55:55.640 is UM usually just hasn't been paying fair as you know. Yeah, 0:55:56.000 --> 0:56:01.160 it's it's been. It's been infuriating for me. It makes 0:56:01.160 --> 0:56:04.040 me very angry. It's very serree and especially I think 0:56:04.040 --> 0:56:08.200 if you're used to a sort of more sane labor context, 0:56:08.239 --> 0:56:10.320 to see them just make a gas lighting and righting 0:56:10.320 --> 0:56:13.000 and doing what I'm a fraise for it is illegal stuff. 0:56:13.560 --> 0:56:18.520 It's disrespectful, is what I think. Yeah, may think maybe 0:56:18.600 --> 0:56:21.799 illustrates instead of what they see post toxographed jazzing in 0:56:21.840 --> 0:56:26.600 economic gens. Yeah, as a workforce whose rights are not 0:56:26.680 --> 0:56:28.200 to be value to do a bulk of the work. 0:56:28.239 --> 0:56:31.200 It's it's very disrespectful, you know. I think it certainly 0:56:31.200 --> 0:56:34.120 speaks to uh. Like I said earlier, they're trying to 0:56:34.120 --> 0:56:36.279 outlast us, and they think that we will reach a 0:56:36.280 --> 0:56:38.200 certain point where we we no longer feel like we 0:56:38.239 --> 0:56:40.279 can avoid our work, that we can stay out here. 0:56:40.560 --> 0:56:43.480 And I think you would think that if that's their strategy, 0:56:43.480 --> 0:56:46.240 would realize that we are in a point of desperation, 0:56:46.280 --> 0:56:49.239 We are in a point of procarity, um, where we 0:56:49.320 --> 0:56:54.279 really need wages and compensation and and and workplace protections 0:56:54.320 --> 0:56:56.520 that meet the current economic situation that we live in, 0:56:56.560 --> 0:56:58.760 because right now that's not what we have. And currently 0:56:58.800 --> 0:57:00.600 at the bargaining table, they're kind like putting a lot 0:57:00.640 --> 0:57:03.000 of our labor reps and to like uh something that 0:57:03.000 --> 0:57:05.919 looks like like jaw like jig saw like type trap 0:57:06.040 --> 0:57:08.400 rooms where they have only for lesson hiding and no 0:57:08.520 --> 0:57:10.719 windows and then them not knowing whether or not they 0:57:11.000 --> 0:57:12.680 have to get a flight back because they're not going 0:57:12.719 --> 0:57:14.680 to meet with them that day. Um, them saying that 0:57:14.719 --> 0:57:16.640 they haven't reserved rooms even though that you know, they 0:57:16.640 --> 0:57:18.840 have so much power. Who's who's taking up a room 0:57:18.880 --> 0:57:21.160 from them, um to meet with them and actually come 0:57:21.240 --> 0:57:24.080 up with some proposals. I got to update that EDMUN 0:57:24.160 --> 0:57:27.400 wasn't bargaining because they couldn't reserve a room. What does 0:57:27.440 --> 0:57:29.280 that mean? There's forty eight thousand people on strike, the 0:57:29.400 --> 0:57:32.480 entire system isn't working. You mean it's your rooms also, 0:57:32.960 --> 0:57:36.080 you own the rooms. I'm I was that that was 0:57:36.120 --> 0:57:38.280 a fascinating update. I'm sorry, I just had to mention 0:57:38.360 --> 0:57:40.320 something about that. So that's just all we have to 0:57:40.320 --> 0:57:42.880 know right now is that they keep canceling meetings adding meetings. 0:57:42.960 --> 0:57:44.360 They're kind of just waiting us out and see how 0:57:44.400 --> 0:57:46.040 long we'll actually be on strike and whether or not 0:57:46.520 --> 0:57:48.600 we actually care about our contracts, which I think you 0:57:48.680 --> 0:57:50.160 being here today, you see how many people are out. 0:57:50.200 --> 0:57:52.680 No one's gonna leave this picket line throughout the week. 0:57:52.960 --> 0:57:56.120 So yeah, yeah, I think that's basically it. People aren't 0:57:56.120 --> 0:57:57.600 going to leave the picket line, and the energy is 0:57:57.600 --> 0:58:01.600 awesome because people are fed up. People are fed up, 0:58:01.640 --> 0:58:04.120 people are fed up being poor and homeless, and this 0:58:04.160 --> 0:58:06.360 is not why we come to grad school, right. I mean, 0:58:06.960 --> 0:58:09.440 I was very fortunate to have a good grad school experience, 0:58:09.440 --> 0:58:11.360 and that's why I'm still in academia, but the majority 0:58:11.360 --> 0:58:14.560 of the people who come to the university spending savings. 0:58:14.640 --> 0:58:17.640 I know people with student loans back from India who 0:58:17.640 --> 0:58:21.760 are here to do a master's and are teeing doing research, 0:58:21.920 --> 0:58:25.160 killing themselves because they had a dream. They literally moved 0:58:25.160 --> 0:58:28.560 across the world to come here following a dream and 0:58:28.600 --> 0:58:30.880 our ending up being broken. That's that's heartbreaking from a 0:58:30.960 --> 0:58:34.920 university as big as this. Nobody deserves to be treated 0:58:34.960 --> 0:58:37.880 this way, and I think everybody here is feeling it. 0:58:38.600 --> 0:58:40.760 If you go to fair you see now dot org. 0:58:41.280 --> 0:58:43.000 There's a link to a strike fund right now, a 0:58:43.040 --> 0:58:45.720 hardship fund, and people can donate to that any amount 0:58:45.720 --> 0:58:48.960 they want to. And there's also we're taking donations to 0:58:48.960 --> 0:58:51.520 actually feed people out here. UM So people have questions 0:58:51.560 --> 0:58:54.240 about that, they can just email the links at that website. 0:58:54.840 --> 0:59:00.960 UM yeah. People. People are very very welcome to show 0:59:01.040 --> 0:59:03.240 up to the picket line to come help. All help 0:59:03.320 --> 0:59:05.880 is appreciated. You want to join us, you want to chant, 0:59:05.920 --> 0:59:08.160 you want to bring supplies, we'll be there. This is 0:59:08.200 --> 0:59:11.200 across all ten you see campuses, if you're near the 0:59:11.240 --> 0:59:13.680 picket line, if you want to show support and solidarity, 0:59:13.760 --> 0:59:16.760 come join us. Yeah, the virtual picketing is still happening, 0:59:16.800 --> 0:59:18.800 and what they've been actually doing is making sure people 0:59:18.840 --> 0:59:21.280 get here and nowhere to go since the picketing is 0:59:21.320 --> 0:59:24.280 so transient, like we're literally moving building to building as 0:59:24.320 --> 0:59:26.840 it's needed, and they're doing the calls for us and 0:59:27.080 --> 0:59:29.560 directing us, so which is a wild thing. But also 0:59:29.760 --> 0:59:32.360 the other thing is just people retweeting everything that we post, 0:59:32.720 --> 0:59:34.760 making sure that no one can silence us, because that's 0:59:34.760 --> 0:59:36.640 what you see. Once. Thank you so much for coming, 0:59:36.680 --> 0:59:39.240 Thanks for giving us this platform. The awareness is really 0:59:39.280 --> 0:59:41.040 critical to make sure that you see can't ignore us, 0:59:41.040 --> 0:59:47.240 So thank you so much for coming. It Could Happen 0:59:47.240 --> 0:59:49.600 Here is a production of cool Zone Media. For more 0:59:49.600 --> 0:59:52.400 podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zone 0:59:52.400 --> 0:59:54.280 media dot com, or check us out on the I 0:59:54.360 --> 0:59:57.680 Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 0:59:58.200 --> 1:00:00.320 You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated 1:00:00.320 --> 1:00:03.400 in monthly at cool zone Media dot com slash sources. 1:00:03.600 --> 1:00:04.440 Thanks for listening.