【《We Chinese in America》Media Editor Tang Zhao, December 10, 2022】The largest labor strike in the history of U.S. higher education is now in its fourth week. Roughly 48,000 University of California graduate student workers and academic employees across the system’s 10 campuses are refusing to work as multilayered labor negotiations continue. Last week, postdoctoral scholars and academic researchers reached a tentative agreement with the university system (they account for about a quarter of the striking workforce) but remain on the picket lines in solidarity with fellow workers.

The strike has put a spotlight on wages and working conditions within the UC system as many student workers struggle to find affordable housing and make ends meet. Here is a story shared by one UCSD stikers, Anoop.

Anoop is a third-year graduate student researcher (GSR for short) in biophysics at UC San Diego and is working on his doctorate. The 25-year-old grew up in San Jose and became fascinated with science at a young age. He studied astrophysics at UC Santa Barbara and got a job with a tech startup after graduating but soon decided he’d rather pursue a career in academia.

“Something that caught my eye is that biophysics, as a field, is very young and very new, and so it felt like there’s a lot of potential for growth,” Anoop siad. But Anoop says working conditions for UC’s student researchers can be “very, very harsh,” with unjustified firings and long hours without additional compensation. That was a big driver for him and other workers to organize and vote to form a union, which became Student Researchers United-UAW. “A lot of people ... were feeling very isolated,” he said, “and feeling like they had no recourse when they were being subjected to these horrible working conditions.”

He reflected on the complex relationship between student workers and the university. They are UC employees but also pay tuition to study and work there, he said: "We act as teachers, we act as mentors, we act as lab managers. ... We really are the life force that keeps this university running. The idea that we have to pay someone else for our labor to keep this place running for a lot of people is very insulting." (Photo Credit: Facebook)

There are also the high costs of living in San Diego. Anoop explained that for many GSRs, their employer is also their landlord, with graduate student housing available on the eastern edge of the sprawling campus. “Not only are they setting the price of our labor by how much they pay us,” he said, “they’re also setting the price of our rent.”

Anoop told me he experienced homelessness last spring after his apartment flooded and he was forced to move out. “I went to look for new housing, and I could not afford to live anywhere near that university,” he said. That led to two months of living in his car or crashing on friends’ couches. To make matters worse, he got COVID-19 and said he’d been left with some lingering symptoms.

He eventually found a place he could afford — barely — though it’s farther from campus, which makes his commute longer and more expensive. He added: "Very regularly at the end of the month, I’m left with nothing or I’m dipping into my savings just to get by — just to put food on the table. I’m cutting corners everywhere. I’m skipping meals when I have to, making every sacrifice I can, and it’s still not enough most months to get by.

Anoop notes that his experience is not uncommon among his peers. “I really wish that I was the only one who went through this,” he said. “But I just know way too many people who’ve had to sleep in their cars.”

So, where do things stand now at UC San Diego? Anoop told me the negotiations have marked some milestones so far, including paid time off for GSRs and extended child-care leave. UC officials have proposed some wage increases, which Anoop said were “far higher than anything the UC had offered before we went on strike,” though many union members have expressed that it’s far from enough.

(Source: Los Angeles Times)

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