The issues brought up by teaching and graduate assistants during last semester’s strike are still under negotiation.
On Dec. 9, 2004, TAs and GAs came together to protest for higher wages and better benefits. They picketed in Centennial Hall to raise awareness for their demands not being met by the California State University system. Nina Flores, graduate TA of political science and rhetoric and writing studies, said the university had not yet filled out the proper paperwork in order to recognize the TAs and GAs as a union.
TAs will be back in the classrooms this Spring Semester.
Jason Foster, director of media relations at SDSU, said, “The strike was planned and executed as a one-day strike, rather than an ongoing event.” He said the strike was not held solely at SDSU, but instead was a CSU-wide event.
Though the actual protest has been put to rest, the issues surrounding it have not. Director of Public Affairs for the CSU Chancellor’s Office Colleen Bentley-Adler, said the two sides are still negotiating.
“The United Automobile Workers are representing the student employees and they are currently under first-time negotiations with CSU,” she said. Bentley-Adler said the two sides are presently bargaining about matters such as salaries and benefits.
“Some points have been agreed upon and some are still being discussed,” she said. “That is all that can be revealed at this time.”
CSU spokesperson Clara Potes-Fellow said in a statement on www.calstate.edu that the CSU has been bargaining with the UAW since early November.
“We are disappointed that the UAW is attempting to influence the outcome of bargaining by calling for an illegal strike and filing an unfair labor practice charge with the Public Employment Relations Board,” Potes-Fellow stated.
She alleges that the union is not legally permitted to strike as a way to influence bargaining with the CSU system and that the legality of the strike will be investigated.
“One of the union’s allegations,” she stated, “is that the CSU is failing to provide confidential student information that the union has been seeking.”
She said the CSU has informed the union that it is withholding the information because it is protected by federal law.
The TAs have gone back to work, but they have not forgotten the problems they were fighting against. Leila Jacobs, an English department TA, did not participate in the strike because she was not teaching at the time. However, she firmly believes in the purpose of the protest and supports those who took part.
“GAs and TAs should be making a livable wage and have much better benefits, especially when some of them have been working at SDSU for years, Jacobs said.”
