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Mayor Dave posted:I definitely think that the union has a long way to go on its messaging and tactics Let's head this off at the pass: Jesus christ, no, let's not get into the minutiae of UAW 2865 issues, because 1) they are too long, complex, and insular to matter to many people here, 2) those that would be interested might end up personally identified given how small the overall group is, and 3) I just had to deal with all of the drama surrounding it for the past week and I'm sick of it. The least you need to know is the union has 2 factions: the radical grassroots folks and the business-ish top-down unionists. The radicals won in the last union election 3 years ago, made a lot of progress in organizing, but got kind of insular and didn't make too much of an effort to include the STEM folks (even those inclined to support them!). This ties into your comments about the messaging/tactics. Example: the strike was listed for 2 days at some campuses, one day for others, which makes no loving sense. Not a whole lot of effort was put into making people aware that one or two days of action won't kill their academic career, and that they were legally protected! There was an election earlier this week where the top-down folks (who have a lot of STEM support) made a huge effort to push back, but they have their own weird awfulness. We'll see what happens when the dust clears. Let's leave it at that. Jagchosis posted:Berkeley TAs are affiliated with UAW and go on strike seemingly every five minutes. I'm not really connected to the campus at all so I don't know, nor care, what their grievances are, but from what I've seen their pickets are kind of sad. Their chants are terrible, (if I recall correctly, I've seen "We have the power! What kinda power? (crowd chants) UNION POWER!" and "Lets show Governor Jerry/This is union territory!) and so nonthreatening cops don't even bother to show up and monitor the strikes. I'm pro-organized labor and all, but I found these displays somewhat embarrassing. California politics! There's no real good way to approach a highly-tangled ball of anti-union rhetoric like this other than to say "go educate yourself or gently caress off". The strike action in April was over unfair labor practices like administrators illegally filming union activity (or having the cops do it for them), department people threatening to fire people if they discussed striking, and those same people threatening international students with deportation if they got involved in union activities (which is not true!). This happened on multiple campuses. Furthermore, we don't have a contract and haven't had one since November. I'm sorry a bunch of grad students chanting some slogans inconvenience you so much. Perhaps you should consider that the university administration has been actively trying to cheap out on their TAs, which is a slightly more pressing issue. Ok, union blathering aside: Can anyone tell me more about the propositions on the primary ballot? Both seem like decent ideas (Prop 41 redirects unused bond money for homeless veterans programs, Prop 42 forces the cost of abiding by sunshine/open record laws onto municipalities), but I want a better source than the voter information guide.
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May 1, 2014 20:55
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Grand Prize Winner posted:How did the UAW end up organizing TAs? UAW wanted to expand into a "market" of previously unrepresented labor to augment their membership base (auto and aerospace workers), plus they brought lots of money and organizing power. More details are in the history of the UC system local here, and the Wikipedia page about grad student unionization is surprisingly well done.
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May 1, 2014 21:18
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I didn't want to get into this, but if it'll get my writing chops going, fine.Mayor Dave posted:The biggest problem I saw was the absolute failure of the union to inform anyone why they were striking. To a lot of the students, who had already experienced multiple strikes earlier this year, the only messaging was a flier talking about unisex bathrooms and fighting deportation. These might be important issues, but when you're striking over unfair labor practices and the failure of contract negotiations you can't get tied up in the identity politics stuff. A lot of students who might be convinced to support the union's economic issues aren't getting the economic message at all. You didn't read the flyer very closely then, because it discussed the unfair labor practices in detail. They also included elements of the bargaining points for reference. I don't really expect undergrads to read the entire bargaining manifesto, but it's all out there As for the identity politics, they are part of the negotiations! They're part of the unfair labor practices! 1) Gender-neutral bathrooms were one of the bargaining points focused on most heavily between the parties at the time of the strike. Being able to take a piss while working without fear of being attacked is a pretty basic thing that shouldn't have been pushed back on in the first place, but hey, that's just me. All that said, the union successfully got gender-neutral bathrooms in negotiations in the past 2 weeks! 2) The UC relies heavily on international students to make up the grad student ranks and teach/research. Having administration threaten this large population with deportation for participating in entirely legal activities is pretty drat ridiculous. It's a next level up from threatening to fire someone for participating in union activities, which I'm sure you understand is bullshit. 2b) You might have noticed a demand about undocumented workers, which essentially amounts to "if you were unlucky enough to grow up as an undocumented immigrant, you can't legally work as a TA". It would make sense that a union would try to get equitable working conditions for every grad student, right? These things are not some separate nebulous "other" that inhibits negotiation on the economic issues. They're inherent aspects of the agreed upon negotiation process. I will admit, certain people in the current leadership have had tunnel vision on identity politics. That's part of the current holy war at issue in the union election. But it's not some either-or situation, nor do these internal issues de-legitimize the strike. Also, you said "multiple" strikes. There were all of two directly involving the TA union this year: one was a sympathy strike with the service & patient-care workers in AFSCME 3299 (which covered the same issues of management intimidating union people during AFSCME's own negotiations) in November, and one was the aforementioned strike for the TA union only. Both were about UC administration clamping down on organizing in the midst of contract negotiations to gain an upper hand, which was quite clearly articulated by every union involved. I get your skepticism on the effectiveness of these tactics and I will say that I'm not the happiest about how certain things have gone. My complaints, however, are about engagement within the union, which is far outside the complaints voiced in this thread so far. Jerry Manderbilt posted:Will this state become ungovernable again if the Democrats lose their supermajority? At least it's not the Larouchites out by Langson. 
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May 1, 2014 23:35
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olution!" and there was a booth selling shirts for the Donnelly for Governor campaign saying "got liberty?" 
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Bizarro Watt posted:Oh hey the UC grad student union is planning on doing a statewide strike during finals week, that's going to go over well. They listened to my complaints, huzzah. Now it's time to get out there and educate people why we're doing this.
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May 19, 2014 09:39
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whitey delenda est posted:Is this article bolded in this fashion to poke fun at celebrity gossip magazines? Not really, that's the house style for Proper Nouns at OC Weekly (actually, at almost every free alternative weekly in the US). It might have started as a gag somewhere, but it's completely unironic at this point.
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Jun 1, 2014 21:13
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FCKGW posted:Someone posted this site earlier in the thread and its a good breakdown of the props and their effects in pretty plain English. The Prop 48 explanation here is marvelous. A no-nonsense explanation of the situation, but written as a parody of Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha.
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Oct 30, 2014 10:07
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enraged_camel posted:The solution is to not become a grad student unless your employer pays for it or you have a guaranteed job offer for when you get your degree. No, the solution is for the UC to stop loving us in the rear end during contract time and for our union to not fold like a cheap loving lawnchair when probed even slightly. Not that I'm mad about how the last contract negotiations ended, when we could have called a strike during finals and crippled the admins, noooooooooooooo sir.
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Nov 6, 2014 06:39
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rope kid posted:Welcome to Irvine. Every street in the city will be repaved yearly. However, if you want the traffic lights synchronized on one semi-major road, we'll take 2-5 years to decide. If you want the whole city's lights synched, wait a decade and maybe we'll consider it.
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Nov 29, 2014 22:34
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:UCI student checking in: holy gently caress so many people were clad in scarves and heavy jackets today. All of these people are colossal morons because it's not even in the 40s yet. Jesus christ. Put on a rain jacket and use an umbrella.
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Dec 4, 2014 04:48
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:Also someone in one of my UCI facebook groups released the Google Drive spreadsheet with the roll call and the 6 people who voted to remove the flag. All 6 of them should be hit with a sock full of oranges for the horrendous Tea Party bullshit they're going to subject this university to for the next month. Assholes. The rest of ASUCI, led by the president, is already backpedaling away from this mess as fast as possible.
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Mar 7, 2015 04:06
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Anonymous Zebra posted:I currently live in Zürich, Switzerland but will be moving to Riverside, CA in about a year. This thread certainly has been an...interesting...read for attempting to understand what my new home will be like. I shudder to think what terrible life choices you have made that require you to move to Riverside.
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May 10, 2015 22:37
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Jerry Manderbilt posted:I have no idea about this weekly but I saw it at a kebab house earlier: That's Larry Agran's Pravda-equivalent. Use it to line a birdcage or housetrain a puppy. e: Seriously, that useless corrupt fucker and his scumbag cheering squad have done everything they can to cover up or deflect from their massive corruption. gently caress Larry Agran.
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May 10, 2015 23:24
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