With thousands of grades left unfinished for the spring quarter at UC Santa Cruz, recently striking graduate student workers have offered to finish grading them – in exchange for amnesty for the more than 100 people arrested at the UCSC Gaza solidarity encampment last month.
The grad student workers at UCSC and six other University of California campuses had walked off the job between May 20 and June 7, in support of pro-Palestine protesters and opposing the arrests at encampments at several campuses. However, the Orange County Superior Court granted the UC’s request for a temporary restraining order against the union on June 7 effectively immediately, and they returned to work. The return meant that workers had much grading of their undergraduate students to do. As they approached the June 18 grading deadline, about 5,000 grades needed were unfinished, according to the United Auto Workers (UAW) 4811 unit chair at UCSC, Rebecca Gross.
Now, the union, as it announced on Instagram, has made an offer to UCSC administrators to have union members finish the grading in exchange for UC administrators granting the arrested protesters amnesty. Such an amnesty would apply to more than 100 people that police arrested at the UCSC encampment on May 30 and 31.
Gross said the union has given administrators until Wednesday, June 26, to respond...
Campus spokesperson Abby Butler didn’t directly respond as to whether or not UCSC administrators were considering the offer. She said via email, “UC Santa Cruz does not negotiate with our local UAW – all negotiations are systemwide.” As for the request for amnesty, she said university members must go through the “applicable review process. Amnesty for students, faculty and staff is not in alignment with the UC guidelines for determining disciplinary actions.”
UAW 4811 and the UC are scheduled for a hearing on Thursday on the lawsuit that UC had filed against the union for breach of contract.
It is unclear whether the local union at Santa Cruz made the offer in consultation with systemwide union leadership. A take-it-or-leave-it offer/demand for amnesty might be seen as supporting UC's ULP and lawsuit against the union which is based on the allegation that the strike was "political" in nature. We'll have to see what comes out of the court hearing and PERB.
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