2-23-20: Statement of UC Santa Cruz graduate student workers
To the UC Community:
At the UCSC General Assembly on February 21, COLA wildcat strikers voted overwhelmingly to continue to withhold Fall grades beyond Janet Napolitano’s midnight deadline.
At least 85 UCSC graduate student workers, and very likely more, have refused to submit to Napolitano and INC Kletzer’s threat to revoke Spring appointments and block future ones. Nearly 20% of these workers are international graduate students, who now face the risk of de facto deportation.
We feel the collective strength of our fellow workers’ commitment to act decisively in solidarity. We know of pledges to withhold winter grades and commence teaching strikes on multiple UC campuses, and a UCSC, in the event of terminations at UCSC.
We are now past Napolitano’s firing deadline. We hereby consider ourselves terminated from our employment.
We consider these pledges active and in effect until we receive notice that we are reinstated to Spring appointments.
We further call on our graduate worker comrades to strike not only in solidarity with us, but also for their own COLA demands. Our labor stoppages have taught us that the power is on our side to move towards the COLA we need. Strike with us to win it for all of us.
Signed,
Striking graduate student workers at UCSC