UC student employee union president explains UC strike

1. Even uneducated high school dropouts working inside a warehouse making more money than these people here. I actually thought it was a typo when I saw how little it was too!!!

2. The UC schools TAs make more than UC adjunct faculty. Right now, they are making at least double. They should not get more than the adjunct professors who are truly being taken advantage of. Adjuncts in the UCs don't even get health benefits – just $12,000/ yr. That's it. Unbelievable that this is even allowed when adjunct professors do the same or often more work than tenured professors. TAs are asking for $55,000 -75,000 when they only work part-time and they're just students. Adjunct faculty have degrees, MA or PhDs. What they're asking for is so ridiculous and a slap in the face to adjunct faculty.

3. whoa whoa whoa the chancellors get a 100,000 raise to live in a mansion oh hell no

4. i go to ucla and i spent all quarter living in my car for those wondering how bad it really is

5. Laughing my ass off! You just described the entirety of the California economic system for every single person who lives here. The college system is one of the absolute most corrupt systems in the entire world. Now you know what the rest of us have known for a very long time.

6. Right on!!!✊✊✊ as a ex-part time ESOL instructor at Laney College in Oakland/Contra Costa College in Richmond, CA & DVC I wish our $ellout unions had the guts to do the same (70% higher ed=part time…at least it was till I had to bounce in 2019)! Now I sell coffee at flea markets in another country…good luck & keep fightin' fo the good.

7. "public university system"
   No, a real 1 would b free

8. I agree that TA RA PD must should be paid >USD60K. I was a very very poor PG at WVU in 1983-1985 getting about USD500 from my sponsor every month🤑🥵

9. The Marc Steiner Show: Trump Republicans' return to power in 2022, 2024 elections ha ha ha ha ha

10. commie BS

11. #UAW #Unionstrong

12. The CAPITALIZATION of higher ed started some decades ago
    
    via ALL THAT GRANT MONEY COMING FROM THE MILITARY/INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX.
    
    Went on from there by CAPITALISTS PILING-ON in any number of ways, eg,
    all that "teaching" now done by **students?!** while the "professors" sit back and write and do appearances, eg,
    today's top level college football
    
    IS NOTHING BUT THE NFL EXPLOITATION OF YOUNG MEN IN WHAT IS, IN EFFECT, THE **MINOR LEAGUES** OF THE NFL. I'm sure ticket prices at bigtime college games are thru the roof, too.

13. Keep on thus, please. It's big. Zero coverage from MSM.

14. Good fight for what's right.

15. People must realize that workers are workers no matter what that work encompasses. From farmers to factory workers to service employees and even cops, fire fighters and soldiers, if you work, you are a worker. In reality, even the managers are workers and theoretically should be in league with the labor movement.

16. If the workers succeed in their pay claims, will that bring higher college fees for students?

17. #solidarity #unionstrong

18. i have an idea quit and into look into a different kind of work. i made a good living as a car dealership mechanic changing oil doing inspections. that would screw over the university more then them giving you a raise.

19. Fantastic This is how we gain equal
    Bargaining power with the bosses.

20. Trump said "Make America Great Again (Maga) Right or Wrong Headed ? Inflation with a Elitist – Oligarchy System with Tax Free Charities 🎩💰🎩🤡

21. MOVE TO UKRAINE! CALIFORNIA HAS A GARBAGE GOVERNMENT. I HOPE THE STRIKERS WIN.

22. UAW will continue the strike until their demands are met. This strike will be brutal.

23. It's a sorry testament that you have to ask the audience to be compassionate to smart people who have academic talent, who qualified not only for grad school but for an assistantship. We have come to a point in our politics where people have to apologize for wanting to better themselves lest they insult someone who inherited a drywall contracting company or someone who went into the military or who went straight into service work. There is too much hate toward the people who pursue higher education, as if they made a "choice" that necessarily puts down everyone else. We need people to be educated and informed, to know how to evaluate information and not be easily led by the media and our elected officials who definitely have college degrees if not also professional degrees. And yes, I am very sympathetic to people who are striving to improve their minds and qualify for the jobs they could excel in when they are taken advantage of. Many do not get their goal jobs and still end up in the military or service work, but having them among the masses is still a benefit to society.

24. good faith??? OH OK!!! NO PROBLEM!!! WOW THANKS!!

25. $54,000 is still not enough to live in Westwood.

26. While this is actually the second-largest strike in higher education – specifically at the University of California – in history, it's the first one of this size mostly composed of educators and others involved directly in education. The evolution of these strikes and the connection between these struggles is so important. Speaking as the past VP of CWA 9119, the largest local of the Communications Workers of America, until we finally unite these struggles across union and sector, we must continue to relentlessly make each other aware of the larger movement that we are a part of. When my union struck in 2018 and 19, we hoped that UAW would join us, and I am heartened to see the academic workers show their solidarity on the picket line today.

27. Great job reporting on this!! I attended to UCLA years ago, and I saw the inequalities then!! This has got to stop! GO UNION!!! ✊️

28. Well done my young friends. You all deserve a living wage.

29. $54,000 is chicken feed in California. The local housing should be subsidized far more for these workers. You can’t find affordable housing even 20 miles away there.

30. im so tired of dumbed down kids in the us, hoping that these youngsters can pick it up and we can live in an educated society.

31. Yes! every aspect of our higher education system is a dumpster fire!! except, the part about learning

32. Kudos to Maximillian Alvarez for covering the UC student employee strike !  
    University workers of today and coal miners of the 19th century share pretty much the same "Company Town" story of EXPLOITATION.

    Universities are essentially COMPANY TOWNS. “ Without external competition, housing costs and groceries in company towns could become exorbitant, and the workers built up large debts that they were required to pay off
    before leaving. “
    — “Slavery by Another Name," PBS (2021)

    Underpaying university workers is tantamount to the mining/factory industrialists clawing back the earnings of workers by charging high rents and paying worker wages in company store credits.

33. I wish them all the luck in the world! I dropped out of a PhD program at UCLA because the pay as a TA and research assistant was too low to lead a "normal" life as I understood it, at least in a high-housing cost area like LA. That said, I will be jealous if they succeed!

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