Dear CUE members,
On November 15, the CUE statewide executive board voted unanimously
to engage in a sympathy strike to support the UAW, when it goes on
strike this semester/quarter. UAW represents UC's academic student
employees, including Graduate Student Instructors/Teaching
Assistants, Readers, Tutors.
This means that when the graduate student employees go on strike, CUE
is encouraging clericals not to go to work, to join the picket lines,
and to find other ways to support the strikers.
If called, the UAW strike will be a ULP strike, based on the scores
of unfair practices committed by UC. The UAW reports that since the
UAW's one-day ULP strike in October, UC has not corrected its
practices; in fact, UC has committed new unfair practices. Unfair
labor practices illegally undermine a union's ability to represent
its members, to protect or improve workers' wages and working
conditions.
Today the UAW announced that the strike will begin sometime during
the week that begins December 1. We are advising CUE members and all
sympathetic clericals across the state to contact their locals for
information on the logistics of the strike and strike pay/benefits.
UC is attempting to force the UAW to give up their right to engage in
sympathy strikes, that is, to honor the picket lines of other unions.
We believe that this union has been targeted by UC because of their
key support of CUE strikes at several campuses in the fall of 2002.
This is a major effort by UC to erode statewide union solidarity and
workers' rights.
Because there is no contractual ban in effect for CUE on sympathy
strikes, and since such strikes are protected under the law, CUE may
engage in such a strike, understanding that so long as the UAW strike
is found to be legal, our sympathy strike will be, too.
In voting to support such a strike by the UAW, CUE's statewide board
has voted to pay strike pay benefits of $60/day for those
CUE-represented employees who spend at least 4 hours/day on the
picket lines. After the first 5 working days of the strike, CUE's
statewide board will meet to assess the situation.
Please contact your local CUE office for information on how to obtain
an attendance card so that your picket line benefits can be processed
in a timely manner. Local offices will also have instructions
regarding logistics on strike day. Contact
information for all local CUE offices
If you are a CUE-represented clerical and you do not work on a
central campus (for instance, if you work at UCOP, DANR. LBNL or any
of the medical centers except for UCLA, or if you work at a
department or unit that is physically removed from the central
campus, you should get in touch with your local to find out how you
can support this UAW strike.
If, for some reason, you find yourself at work during this strike,
please join the UAW lines during your break time and please remember
that you should not be doing the GSIs' work for them. If asked to do
the work of a striker (such as filing grades, proctoring exams), you
should tell your supervisor that you are honoring the strike and
cannot in good conscience do their work. If you are given a direct
order to do the work please contact your local union office for
advice. To do a striker's work is not a neutral activity; it
seriously undercuts the strike.
If you work on a central campus, even if you do not see a picket line
on your way to work, once the UAW strike starts, it starts for all of
us, and we urge you to honor this important strike.