[ASpring]

It was great for us at UC Santa Cruz. The reason I had healthcare during grad school was because the union won it right before I joined. The reason they have a housing stipend now (in the most expensive rental market in the US[1]) is because the union fought for a cost-of-living allowance. We at UCSC didn't always agree with the course of the larger UAW 2685 but they did a lot for us.

I'm not sure what the system was like in the union in Wisconsin but I'm surprised that more STEM students didn't join and change the course of the union if they were that negatively affected. Our union was democratic almost to a fault but maybe the structure in Wisconsin was different.

[1]https://www.sfchronicle.com/realestate/article/most-expensiv...

[hedora]

When was this? Just before the pandemic, the grad students protested at UAW meetings and went on a wildcat strike after UAW ratified a contract the campus voted against.

Later, Janet Nepolitano released police drones and set up barricades to try to shut down the picket lines. Eventually covid ended the drama, but only after some students were deported (I assume. The plan was to deport them, but the story stopped making news once the 2020 lockdowns hit.)

Anyway, the UAW was a similar disaster at UC Berkeley a while back. There weren’t widespread protests, but there were salary caps for grad students, and the union eliminated health care coverage for a number of female problems (over student objections).

[ASpring]

The wildcat strike is exactly what I was referring to as "We at UCSC didn't always agree with the course of the larger UAW 2685..."

The wildcat strike was led by the local union leadership after they abdicated their official positions iirc. Having that previous level of organization and identified leadership certainly made organizing wildcat actions easier.

Unions are more than just the highest level of leadership.

[hitekker]

Do you have sources for those claims? I don't have any knowledge here; just cursory googling indicates the issue was a lot more complex than UAW being the bad guy.

[rnk]

Female problems? Are you serious, that is a pretty negative way to describe health issues that might apply only to women. Why would you put it that way, it's just kind of dismissive.

[extasia]

How would you have put it, rnk?

[rnk]

Health concerns?

[djcapelis]

> The reason I had healthcare during grad school was because the union won it right before I joined.

I’m sorry if this is weird, but as someone who also went to UCSC for grad school I found this a bit confusing. So I looked it up and you started at UCSC at 2014, yeah?

UCSC grad students had GSHIP coverage for years before that time. I myself was on it when I joined starting in 2009, and there’s plenty of documentation of fights folks had over trying to get better rates and coverage on GSHIP well before both our times: https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/05/13/18415831.php (Which personally I thought was pretty good especially after the expansion of airlift coverage which was an unfortunately common problem for UCSC’s location “over the hill” from many tier 1 emergency rooms.)

Maybe I missed something when I was there 2009-2015. But what did the union representation and bargaining bring to the table there?

From a couple years ago, it doesn’t seem to have resulted in anything close to a reasonable or even livable stipend for a researcher. It was bad when I was in grad school, but I was pretty appalled to hear during the wildcat strikes ten years later that despite the increase in costs there didn’t seem to be that much change in the stipend amounts for graduate researchers. The students who were wildcatting out of frustration seemed to have a pretty good reason IMO.

I think that meets a pretty similar pattern of unions focusing on fighting about healthcare while leaving wages to stagnate over years of price increases, which I guess also applies in many unrepresented UC roles and in dynamics elsewhere. I personally didn’t see much difference between UAW’s representation and not when I was there, but I guess I didn’t have a huge point of comparison.

I hope whatever this new swell of support is provides livable stipends for young researchers though. So I hope I’m either wrong or grad student unions are able to win more in bargaining in the future. :)

[ASpring]

Nice to see a fellow slug! I think you are correct on the timeline being further back. The narrative I recalled was that there was a major victory around health care fee remission before I joined but it looks as if that was part of the original contract the union negotiated [1].

I spent my final years at UCSC working through the systems they had set up internally (administration meetings with GSA, getting on committees of administrators as a grad student voice, working with on campus housing developers[2]) in order to improve housing availability and cost. We had marginal wins if anything. The strike the next year won everyone thousands of dollars toward housing every year. I understand the nuance of it being a wildcat strike but the entire organizing infrastructure there was from the union.

I agree with your final points and hope stipends will follow upwards in the near future.

[1] https://livinghistory.as.ucsb.edu/tag/uaw-local-2865/ [2] https://payusmoreucsc.com/history-of-students-attempts-to-en...

[djcapelis]

Likewise! Those housing stipends seemed sorely needed. Nice work on organizing around them and thanks for sharing your perspective on it! :)

[throwaway2037]

I'm confused. The article that you linked says San Francisco is the most expensive rental market. However, you speak about UC Santa Cruz. The campus is about 120 km south. It's a totally different rental market. Do I misunderstand?

[smugma]

First line: “Santa Cruz County has vaulted over the San Francisco area as the most expensive market in the country for renters”

[texuf]

It’s an hour and 14 minute drive. It’s not unheard of to commute from there, and it’s far more beautiful than any of the closer beaches, so yes the Bay Area rental prices still apply, in addition to beach community rental prices. As far as calling it SF, some people shorten “The San Francisco Bay Area,” which includes San Jose, to “San Francisco,” and people still know what they mean, though I see why it can be confusing.