CUCFA Message on Picking up Struck Work

Dear colleagues,

We have entered the second week of the UAW multi-unit strike. CUCFA is inspired by our fellow academic workers represented by UAW, who are fighting to create a UC where everyone can live with dignity in the place they work. We reaffirm our message to President Drake sent on November 11, 2022, with over 1,400 Senate faculty signatures, that urged him to direct his staff to engage in good faith bargaining. We join 100 UC departments, programs, and committees that publicly expressed their support for striking academic workers. They have written letters of solidarity, with some committing not to perform work that the striking workers would normally do.  Groups of faculty have also organized a sign-on letter directed to state leaders and a pledge by faculty who are exercising their right to respect the UAW picket.

The strike has prompted many conversations among Senate faculty members about our rights and responsibilities. At UCLA, the Academic Senate has issued guidance reiterating that faculty are not expected to take on additional labor if they choose not to, and that graduate student workers must not face retaliation for striking. UC faculty with expertise in labor law have also produced a detailed legal memo that explains the HEERA category of “supervisory employee” and reaffirms UC Senate faculty members’ right to respect the UAW picket. CUCFA’s FAQ and one issued by an autonomous faculty organizing group further articulate Senate faculty rights and responsibilities during the strike. The new CUCFA FAQ specifically addresses questions related to grades and grading.

This message and the updated CUCFA FAQ come in response to several notes Senate faculty across the system sent to info@cucfa.org that report being encouraged to take on additional labor to make up for the missing work of ASEs – for example, being asked to proctor exams and help with grading if they are not currently teaching. CUCFA is extremely concerned that such requests, issued under titles such as “Instructional Guidelines for Educational Continuity,” harm faculty interests. These requests increase the instructional workload of already overtaxed and exhausted faculty and ask us to give up our HEERA-protected right not to volunteer to take up struck labor. Further, taking on these tasks would undermine the strike’s impact and falsely communicate to both students and the administration that we can continue to do our jobs without the labor of striking workers.

As stated in the grades/grading FAQ Q1, if you receive one of these messages that suggests you take on additional labor, you can respond by declining the extra work and communicating that you do not wish to volunteer to take up the struck labor. If your department chair or Dean insists that you must perform the additional struck work, you have the right under HEERA to refuse. If you do not feel comfortable doing so, you can state that you are performing the work under protest. You should document all new duties, dates, and time required to perform the work, any agreement on mitigation of the increase in work, how you will be compensated for this increase, and any objections you have, including your physical and mental ability to complete the work. A template response for this email is below. Additionally, you can cc info@cucfa.org or contact your campus Faculty Association, and we can facilitate communication with the appropriate Academic Senate committee or office on your campus.

We recognize that these kinds of administrative requests will disproportionately impact faculty who are untenured or otherwise marginalized in their departments by placing informal pressures on them to cooperate even if they wish to act in solidarity with striking workers by not diminishing the impact of their absence from work. We therefore encourage tenured faculty to exercise their privilege and take the lead by issuing collective statements affirming the rights of UAW strikers and of faculty wishing to respect the picket line and/or not take up struck labor.

CUCFA will be working with campus Faculty Associations to strategize with faculty across departments and academic divisions about how they can feel more empowered to exercise their HEERA-protected rights. Please be on the lookout for this announcement. We invite signatories of the original CUCFA solidarity statement to help us in this outreach. If you would like to help facilitate these conversations in your department, on your campus, or at the statewide level, please reach out to us at info@cucfa.org.

Email template – feel free to modify to your specific circumstances

Dear X,

I am writing in response to your guidance that faculty members facilitate instructional continuity during the strike. I would like to inform you that I am exercising my HEERA-protected right not to  volunteer to perform struck work tied to ASE’s Description of Duties. If this guidance is a directive rather than a suggestion, and you are requiring me to perform this work under discipline or other threat of adverse consequences, I want to register my objection to doing so and state that I understand this to be an unfair labor practice. If this is a directive, please inform me of my new duties, and the dates during which you expect me to perform them. I would also like to know what mitigation measures are available to offset the increase in work and how I will be compensated for this additional labor.

Thank you,