Possible ULP Strike

Fired UCSC grad students speak out, campus prepares for impacts: At least 74 TAs dismissed or barred for refusal to submit grades

By NICHOLAS IBARRA | 3-2-20 | Santa Cruz Sentinel

...A campus message Friday listed the number of fired grading strikers as 54, but further review of outstanding grades has seen that number grow to 74, according to an email from UCSC spokesman Scott Hernandez-Jason on Monday. A “small number” of cases remain under review, Hernandez-Jason said...

Repeated calls from union leadership for the UC to reopen negotiation for a cost-of-living adjustment have so far gone unheeded. Both sides have filed formal unfair labor practice charges against one another over the strike.

On Monday, UAW 2865 president Kavitha Iyengar raised the possibility of a union-wide strike vote.

“We formally asked UC to come to the bargaining table and negotiate a cost of living adjustment months ago — and they continue to refuse,” Iyengar said in a prepared release. “Instead they have consistently tried to do an end run around the union in both the bargaining and discipline process. The union’s elected Bargaining Team will convene this week to discuss our options, and that includes a possible strike authorization vote in response to UC’s repeated Unfair Labor Practices.”

Full story at https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2020/03/02/fired-ucsc-grad-students-speak-out-campus-prepares-for-impacts/

Note: A strike protesting an unfair labor practice (ULP) by the university would potentially protect strikers from being fired, if PERB ultimately found the strike to be truly for that reason. It's less clear that such a ruling, if it occurred, would provide legal protection for the 74 reported to be fired already. Their statements up until the firing (and even after) focused on an economic issue. Economic strikers are less protected from firing than ULP strikers.