More than 1,000 lecturers at five University of California
campuses picketed Monday ““ instead of teaching their classes
““ as part of a two-day strike they hope will bring public
awareness to their cause and pressure the administration to
compromise on contract issues.
The non-tenured lecturers have been working without a contract
for more than two years and say it’s time the UC begins
bargaining in good faith, said Kevin Roddy, president of the
University Council-American Federation of Teachers and a lecturer
of medieval studies at UC Davis.
“We would like to be recognized as participants in the
system,” said Roddy, who has worked as a lecturer since 1976.
“The chief negotiator said lecturers do not have positions,
they have classes ““ which allows them to get rid of us at
will. That is prejudicial,” he continued.
The UC estimates there are 2,500 lecturers, while the union puts
it closer to 4,000 by including those who teach only one class.
The UC has said it is cash-strapped because of the ailing state
budget and cannot offer lecturers more. It also feels students are
the ones suffering most from the walkouts.
“At this point, UC has pretty much done everything it
can,” said UC spokesman Paul Schwartz. “The
state’s view is that the appropriate place to resolve the
differences is at the bargaining table, not on the street corner or
at campus plazas,” he said.
Schwartz added that the university system also views the strikes
as illegal, but said disciplinary action, if any, would be
addressed on an individual basis at each campus.
Lecturers waved signs and marched at campuses in Santa Cruz,
Irvine, Davis, Riverside and Santa Barbara. Informational fliers
were distributed at Berkeley and San Diego.
Though 88 percent of UCLA’s UC-AFT members voted in a
summer mail-in vote to strike this fall quarter, they are holding
out to see what UCLA’s chapter of the Coalition of University
Employees decides to do before setting a date, said Elizabeth
Barba, a UC-AFT Los Angeles area representative.
At some of the campuses, CUE ““ the union representing
18,000 clerical workers who are currently negotiating with the UC
for better wages ““ marched side by side with lecturers.
Additionally, other unions representing construction workers and
nearly 11,000 UC teaching assistants, readers and tutors agreed to
honor picket lines.
The Santa Cruz campus was practically a ghost town, said
Yonathan Katznelson, a UCSC economics lecturer approaching his
sixth year at the school.
“It is emptier than summer session, it is like
intersession” when there are no classes, he continued.
Katznelson said he generally teaches 250 students per quarter.
Since he estimated hundreds of nontenured lecturers and supportive
tenured professors picketing outside with him, many students had no
classes to attend.
All essential services operated at “skeletal levels”
including five major construction projects, said Elizabeth Irwin,
UCSC associate vice chancellor of communications. She thought it
was clear there were many fewer people on campus though she could
not determine the exact number.
“Our faculty are so committed to students, they would not
jeopardize the quality of student education in order to get their
message out,” she added.
The 90 percent lecturer-taught English department was
practically shutdown at the Riverside campus today, though most
other classes operated as usual, said Karen Bradford, a UCR press
aide.
Students often don’t know the difference between a
lecturer and professor ““ that lecturers are temporary, said
Sandy Beringer, a lecturer in the UCR English Department, who said
the strike’s purpose is to inform the public of the
UC’s allegedly unfair treatment of lecturers.
Kent Wong, director of the UCLA Center for Labor Research and
Education, agreed strikes are often used as a tactic to bring
public awareness to an issue. The pressure often motivates
resolution, he said.
The lecturers, both part-time and full-time, teach about 30
percent of the system’s undergraduate courses. In addition to
more money, they are asking for job security and equal treatment,
such as being able to apply for grants and serve as department
heads. Lecturers currently are hired on a year-to-year basis for
the first six years. After that, positions are renewed every three
years on an at-will basis.
Negotiations were expected to resume today in Sacramento.
With reports from the Associated Press