Statement of Support for UC Graduate Academic Workers

Asian American Studies Department

November 2, 2022

As scholars in a field created by student movements for social justice, the faculty of the Department of Asian American Studies call on the University of California to negotiate in good faith to honor the demands of teaching assistants, tutors, readers, student researchers, postdocs, and academic researchers represented by three unions–UAW 2865, UAW 5810, and SRU-UAW–for livable wages, affordable housing, child care subsidies, and other basic necessities. We also firmly recommit to our policy of non-retaliation for any of our students who engage in union activities. Graduate student labor is fundamental to our pedagogical and scholarly enterprise, which cannot be sustained without improving their living and working conditions.