There have been many other strikes before, but this is the first time grad assistants have simultaneously walked out at all UC campuses. The issue is whether the students can unionize for collective bargaining, a right they have been trying to win for 15 years. The university system does not recognize the union, and it has no bargaining rights. Its position is that teaching assistants are primarily students, not employees, and don't have the right to unionize. We're more employee, than student Graduates assistants argue they handle the bulk of teaching duties, so they deserve to be considered employees.
Employees everywhere have union rights.
UC officials said it was too early to measure the effects of the strike on the system's 129,000 undergraduates. Time and money Berkeley has the biggest graduate support staff in the UC system, with 1,706 TAs and 800 readers and tutors. They are expected to work 16 to 20 hours a week. This is review week before finals start Monday. Strike organizers said they hoped to minimize the inconvenience to students while giving faculty the headache of giving and grading final exams alone.