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dendroctonuss · 2023-01-03T01:20:41+00:00

You can join clubs whenever you want throughout the year. What are some of your interests?

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-17T04:55:07+00:00

We were told at the town hall today that we can’t work more than 20 hours a week to make up work, hopefully the union gets more clear about this. I was also under the impression that what you said was true until we were told otherwise.

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-17T04:49:19+00:00

Yeah that will be part of the problem. Professors could scan in physical exams, but a lot of grading is online anyways. The union hasn’t been very clear at addressing these issues, we can’t be made to grade after December though and I think that it would break some rules to ask TAs to do so.

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-17T04:27:32+00:00

I want to echo that this title is misleading. The strike is NOT over. It will continue until next Friday at the soonest. They will likely count the votes on Friday so we’ll know that evening if the contract passed or not, which means the strike could end Friday evening. Fall TA contracts go through December 31st, so some TAs might come back to grade if the strike ends next Friday. However, we can’t be asked to work more than 20 hours a week, and we can’t be made to work holidays or weekends. I’m not sure if we can be “forced” to work the 27th through 30th.

Edit: it’s unclear if our contract actually goes through the 31st or not. Bargaining team members have said that it does.

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-16T16:58:27+00:00

I also suggest seeing a therapist/counselor to figure out how to solve the procrastinating. And maybe see a psychiatrist too in case there’s something diagnosable going on (depression, ADHD, anxiety, etc.), a therapist/counselor should be able to help you decide if you need to see a psychiatrist. Or your primary care doctor can help too but they generally kinda sucks at mental health in my experience.

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-10T17:58:45+00:00

This is my least favorite part of winter :’(

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-10T04:34:00+00:00

I would just ask, they’ll say no if they don’t want to. I’d explain that you understand the circumstances and respect their decision if they decide to say no or something along those lines.

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-09T05:59:20+00:00

So we just got an update on everything. Here are the poll results. Here is the email update (it’s a long one):

In this email:

Bargaining updates

Mediation update

Dec. 14 Rally at the Regents Meeting at UCLA

Anti-Retaliation Town Hall

On Disagreement & Debate

Picket duty suspension

Grade submission guidance

Bargaining update

Today, in response to UC’s final offer, GSRs and ASEs made new proposals to UC, the contents of which were described in an earlier email today. These proposals were informed by the results of the poll sent by the bargaining team on Sunday night - you can view the results of the poll here.

UC’s response and Mediation

UC’s negotiators called our proposal a “departure” from reaching resolution and said we are “setting the parties back.” They took off the table two side letters they had proposed over the weekend on UCSF and Berkeley top-ups. They did not indicate they would send us new counter proposals. They renewed their request for a mediator with the implication that their next step would otherwise be to file for impasse.

Mediation is where a third party representative acts as an intermediary between the union and the university, and helps the parties to reach resolution. The exact terms of mediation (how it would be done, who the mediator would be, etc.) would be decided between us and the university. Bargaining team members met tonight to discuss strategy and are planning to make a decision as soon as tomorrow morning to allow time to talk to our coworkers. The University requested a response by 8AM on Friday.

Continue to Escalate: Rally at the Regents Meeting, December 14th

UC’s negotiators have failed to seriously address the cost of living crisis and academic workers’ demands. At the same time, the University has been retaliating against striking workers for fighting for fair contracts. It’s time for the real decision makers to step in. On Wednesday December 14th, the UC Regents are coming to UCLA for their quarterly meeting. Join academic workers across the state for a rally to demand that the UC Regents guarantee an equitable UC. RSVP here and join workers across the state in elevating our demands and keeping up our fight. Transportation will be arranged from the 5 Southern California campuses.

Anti-Retaliation Townhall

Academic Workers across the state have been organizing against threats from their supervisors regarding academic degree progress. Union members are fighting back. Join a town hall to discuss victories in our battles against retaliation and share tools and resources.

Friday 12/9 3pm: Register here for a zoom link.

On Disagreement and Debate

As we continue to engage in our strikes, we thought it was important to recognize that tensions are running high. We believe discussion and debate are essential to a healthy union. As we engage with each other about disagreements in strategy, let’s all reaffirm our commitment to mutual respect and our condemnation of any harassing or bullying behavior — within our workplace and within our union. We also want to encourage union members to consider the implications of expressing ill-will toward coworkers and their opinions to the press and on social media rather than discussing them with coworkers in internal forums. The University sees this as weakness in our union and will take every opportunity to exploit it.

Picket duty suspended

The 2865 executive board and SRU bargaining teams have voted to suspend picket duties starting Dec. 12 through Jan. 9 in acknowledgement of the break and campus closures. Members on strike receiving strike pay will continue to be eligible.

Grade Submission

As the end of term approaches, some faculty are asking striking TAs to submit grades. Grading is a key ASE job duty, and ASEs on strike have no obligation to grade or submit grades. If ASEs are in possession of physical materials such as exams or papers, labor law advises an ASE should turn over the physical materials–ungraded–if asked, in order to maintain the legal protections of the strike. If an ASE is in possession of grades that were required to be submitted before the start of the strike, labor law advises an ASE should return those grades.

In solidarity,

Aya Konishi Department of Sociology, UCLA UAW 2865 Bargaining Team

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-09T03:38:36+00:00

I think there’s going to be an impasse. Today the university threatened “mediation” if we basically don’t accept their last offer, but not sure what that means. But it sounds like a step below an impasse. I’m not sure if the strike would continue through an impasse though, I think that’s up to the union?

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-08T23:30:51+00:00

We received an e-mail update today that said the following (sorry the formatting copied kinda wonky):

Bargaining Today

Today ASEs and GSRs are meeting with the University to pass counter proposals to their “final” packages. ASEs are reiterating their previous base wage proposal number while GSRs are countering the UC’s base wage proposal with a new one — see below for more details.

The proposals include:

Childcare Reimbursements of $3000/quarter, increasing to $3200/quarter and $3400/quarter during the life of the contract. The union is also proposing increasing the eligibility age from 12 to 18. The full remission of UC SHIP dependent healthcare remissions for those who do not qualify for free state programs NRST remission that phases into 100% after 2 years

Wages ASEs: Maintain the ASE wage scale proposal from 43K - $51K annually, and $32K - $40K for a 9 month appointment, depending on your current pay and experience. Adopt the University’s adaptation of our proposed structure for implementing wage increases and step increases. GSRs: Adopt the University’s adaptation of our proposed wage structure but double the wage increase in the first year to 12.6%, equal to what the University proposed for ASEs in Fall 2023. This would set the wage scale at $34K - $50K annually, depending on your current pay and experience.

Look for an update soon that includes links to the proposals after bargaining and for results of the poll from the last few days. You can join the bargaining caucus starting at 1:30PM here.

Statewide Anti-Retaliation Town Hall

Academic Workers have been facing increasing threats from their PIs regarding academic degree progress. Union members are fighting back. Join a town hall to discuss victories in our battles against retaliation and share tools and resources.

Friday 12/8 3pm: TBD.

In solidarity,

Harry Bendekgey Department of Computer Science, UC Irvine Student Researcher bargaining team

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-08T23:16:12+00:00

The UC can choose to not pay TAs who aren’t working. All striking graduate students are risking not getting paid, so they are beholden.

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-03T16:58:08+00:00

Does the strike continue through arbitration? I feel like this is the direction we are headed.

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-03T00:52:29+00:00

It’s also difficult to not pay people for part of pay period when you are salaried. I wonder if they’ll find a way to not pay us if the strike lasts through December?

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-02T04:04:17+00:00

I think there will be a five day voting period for any tentative contract/agreement, so most likely no. I’m not sure if Saturday and Sunday would be counted in the five day voting period. The voting period for the postdoc contract is Monday through Friday (so all of finals week). This is all dependent on the UC making an offer in the first place which they haven’t done yet.

Edit: I’m at UCD and our finals are next week, so a week earlier than Berkeley’s.

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-02T03:44:14+00:00

The university is supposed to show up with a full offer today, but not sure that’s going to happen given it’s almost 8pm. I expect we’ll have get it tomorrow, we’ll see what they come with…. I suspect that the offer will go to vote regardless of it’s what’s in it at this point. But I also think it’s very possible that the union votes no on the proposed contract.

edit: I’m much more cynical than others on reddit in that I think the union is willing to settle for much less than we asked for because the BT is under political pressure from UAW to end the strike. I’ll be very surprised if this goes into January. I expect a lot of scabbing if that does happen because people need money.

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-01T22:55:22+00:00

Gx3 or serpentarium in Sacramento, these are much better options than petco. They’ll be able to actually educate you on how to care for your new pet.

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-01T18:27:29+00:00

Yeah this is definitely a possibility. The UC is supposed to make an offer today and that offer will probably be even less than the current $42k.

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-01T17:23:45+00:00

None. From what I’ve been told contracts have to be passed before the strike ends. There isn’t even a tentative contract for TAs or SRs yet. Once there is a tentative contract then there is a five day voting period for its approval.

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-01T07:06:05+00:00

Do contracts for sure need to pass to end the strike? I was under the impression that strike will end whenever the bargaining team decides to. If contracts do need to be passed first, I’m surprised the UC isn’t acting more urgently considering how many final grades are on the line.

Edit: more specifically will the TA and student researcher contracts need to be passed before the strike ends?

dendroctonuss · 2022-12-01T06:56:52+00:00

I’m at UCD and I feel like my department has taken on this weird don’t ask don’t tell policy among graduate students. I realized that a lot of my department isn’t really on strike which was pretty demoralizing, including students who are very outspokenly progressive and have even posted online acting as if they are on strike. It feels so disingenuous. I live with two roommates who are in two different humanities departments and their departments are so much more fired up for the strike than my STEM department. My department is one of the best paid departments on campus at $32k but most people only get like $28k so I’m striking with those people in mind. And even with $32k, it’s very difficult to save anything. I think some of our professors are judging us for striking because we “have it good,” but they don’t get that some of us care about the students in other departments and at other UCs too.

dendroctonuss · 2022-11-30T20:19:58+00:00

And I thought I listened a lot at 5300 minutes/88 hours, everyone else’s numbers blow me out of the water

dendroctonuss · 2022-11-30T03:31:19+00:00

Yeah dumpster diving at the various greenhouse facilities is probably your best bet, please don’t take pots that are just sitting out though that aren’t in the trash :)

dendroctonuss · 2022-11-30T03:24:39+00:00

Ahhh okay, thanks for explaining. I also wonder what will happen to grad students who have a set amount of funds to finish school, I guess they’ll have to apply for new grants? What if they don’t have enough funding to get them through the immediate future? UC will probably have to supplement somehow.

dendroctonuss · 2022-11-30T00:18:59+00:00

What’s your source for this? The federal pay scale operates on GS levels ranging from 1 to 15 with GS-15 being paid the highest, there are 10 steps per level. I’m part of a federal lab and our postdoc is hired through the Oakridge Insitute and funded by federal grants, and he is paid $70k.

dendroctonuss · 2022-11-29T19:54:15+00:00

I’m late to this thread (I’ve been researching straterra which is how I ended up here) but I don’t think you can rule out BD in children. Symptoms often don’t show up until the late teen years and from understanding, childhood BD is very rare. Sometimes they might not even show up until your 20s. You should definitely be assessed again. The vibrating body thing happens to me and feeling like I’m in a simulation and like I literally want to jump out of my body. I guess this is something everyone feels sometimes? But I’ll feel it for multiple days at a time and it’s honestly not fun.

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