Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 15:08:40 -0800 (PST)

Imminent UC TA strike forum featured on KUCI Web-cast today at 5 p.m.

Irvine -- Subversity, a KUCI public affairs program, features in this evening's broadcast portions of the discussion from yesterday's public forum, organized by Associated Graduate Students at UCI, on the impending TA strike at UCI and 7 other UC campuses. On the panel were representatives of SWU (Student Workers Union) and Graduate Studies Dean Fred Wan and Undergraduate Studies Dean Jim Danziger. The show airs this evening from 5-6 p.m. West Coast time on KUCI, 88.9 FM in Orange County, and is Web-cast at kuci.org:8080.

SWU members who strike are expected to not turn in grades in classes they teach, and to stage picket lines seeking support across campus.

At one point, Dean Wan threatened to replace TAs with AFT Unit 18 lecturers, apparently if the strike is prolonged into the next quarter, saying it would be cheaper. But it is not likely that AFT members would willingly become scabs.

The UAW, which represents TAs here and across the UC, will pay strike benefits, but that is only estimated at $150 a week, leaving TAs with a net pay loss of some $300 or more a week, according to SWU at the well-attended session. UC is the largest employer in the state, according to SWU.

At the crux of the conflict is the refusal of UCI Chancellor Cicerone to sign a paper recognizing the union. The UCI administration argues that its hands are tied by central University Administration, which prefers to see the issue fought out in the courts. SWU has written letters to pro-labor allies in the state legislature (and even Dean Danziger suggested such letters yesterday), and with the Democrats retaining both houses of the state legislature, and with incoming Governor Gray Davis replacing Governor Pete Wilson on the UC Board of Regents, it seems likely that the UC administration will have to eventually recognize the union.

The imminent strike is the cover story in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education. At the meeting, Dean Wan also came under criticism for comments in other media that TAs don't teach and for comparing TAs to children seeking to negotiate with parents over mowing the lawn (the latter in the Christian Science Monitor of November 3, 1998).

SWU can be reached at: home1.gte.net/trio/union.htm.
Fred Wan's "open letter" against SWU is at: www.rgs.uci.edu/rig/gsunion.htm.

To call KUCI studios during the show, dial (949) 824-KUCI (5824).

Subversity airs each Tuesday from 5-6 p.m. on KUCI, 88.9 FM. This evening's show is dedicated to the memory of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), the Black Panther leader, who died this past week.

Next Tuesday, the show is pre-empted by UCI's women's basketball.

E-mail: subversity@kuci.org
URL: www.kuci.org/~dtsang
Host: Daniel C. Tsang, (949) 824-4978