At the time this documents was created, the 2022-2025 contract was ratified 3.5 hours ago.¹ Those of us who organized for a “No” vote are solemnly processing this result, and taking necessary steps to organize again in 2025. 

To be short and clear: those of us who tirelessly organized for a “No” vote know that we could have won more if we held out longer. Not only could we have achieved higher wages, but importantly, we could have achieved better Access Needs, Public Health, Community Safety (i.e. “Cops Off Campus”), Childcare, Healthcare (for dependents), Tuition & Fees (specifically full NRST remission) articles, all of which deeply affect our most marginalized communities, and which suffered enormous concessions during our contract negotiations. Our movement is not rooted in anti-Unionism as some have claimed, it is rooted in centering the most vulnerable members of our Union.

Union organization for graduate student workers is very different than in other industries. The turn-over rate of employees is high. Each new strike seems to build from near-ground-zero, as there is little institutional memory in place. In each new round of contract negotiations, at most half of our employees will have participated in the previous round. This means that a lot of the wisdom from previous organizing efforts gets lost.

This letter attempts to begin addressing this problem, at least on UC Irvine’s campus. Below, we will outline our conglomerated advice and resources from our experience in the Fall 2022 UAW strike. We will try to be brief in our writing on each point, but will excessively link to other resources where you can learn more! We will also include a small FAQ, and some brief history lessons to illuminate, uplift and remember the shoulders our movements rest upon.

🌸 Advice 🌸

Be empowered, do not rely solely on Union leadership ✊

You do not need permission to take action. Your role in any Union is not to be subordinate to yet another ‘boss’. Your role is to organize with your colleagues to leverage the power of your collective when bargaining for better working conditions. The membership is meant to be the highest power in our Union.² Do not assume that your campus’ leaders will be able to represent the membership, or do everything that needs to get done. Regardless of the quality of your campus leaders’ commitments to democratic collective organizing, there is always a need for more help. 

If you have a good idea, start working on it and get everyone you know involved. You may feel discouraged if the ‘regular’ or elected leaders in your campus’ union leadership dismiss your ideas – do not let that stop you.³ When your idea takes off and gains traction, the ‘regular’ or elected leaders will have to either support or fight you. 

Make representing the membership easy 📈📊

For the bargaining team to be able to represent the membership, they must be aware of the membership’s stance. Regularly polling the membership is crucial. Our local UAW leadership may choose to do so officially,⁴ but we also have the power to do so as R&F members.⁵ While some R&F polling happened more regularly in particular departments on particular campuses, these efforts were not consistent and widespread enough in our strike. As a result, many voices were lost and overlooked.⁶ Do not assume our leadership will be on top of polling, and wait for them to do it – do it yourselves.

Know where your power lies 💪

The fundamental principle of striking is withholding your labor: this is central to disrupting the employer. The more people withholding labor, the more powerful your strike is, by definition. Note that this includes the workers in question, but also anybody engaging in a sympathy strike with the workers’ cause – in our case, a vital example is our faculty, both senate and federation. Their support is crucial, as they have the power to ensure grades don’t get submitted, retaliation for stagnant research is mitigated, and departmental and school-wide pressure rises when faculty validate and organize. It is of the utmost importance that you encourage not only your colleagues to strike, but the

faculty within your department as well.⁷ Another example of important sympathy strikers are the Teamsters, freight drivers and warehouse workers who deliver important materials to the UCs.

Picketing is one possible way to spend your non-working time. Pickets are visible to University administration and to the press, and are one element of a successful strike – however, the number of people picketing is not necessarily a reliable representation of the number of people withholding labor.⁸ There are many reasons why your striking colleagues may choose not to attend the pickets: they have caretaker responsibilities; the act of picketing is rather inaccessible physically, especially for those for whom prolonged physical activity poses excessive strain on their bodies; they are performing other essential tasks for the success of our strike.⁹ Additionally, sometimes the picket programming may be boring, and the environment uninviting.¹⁰

During our strike, our Union’s leadership frequently cited dwindling picket numbers as reason to believe our bargaining power has diminished. We believe this to be false, as we approached pressure points such as grading deadlines at the end of the Fall quarter and the opportunity to disrupt the beginning of the Winter quarter, and assessed that most were withholding a substantial portion – if not 100% of – their labor.¹¹ Given that the final contract was not much better than the one offered on December 2nd,¹² and that roughly three quarters of respondents to UAW’s poll wanted to keep fighting after December 2nd, their assessment of our power was simply false.

Start organizing early & prioritize education 📚🧠

While ‘regular’, elected or paid leadership on our campus states otherwise, at UCI, active and detailed planning within the organizing committee (OC) for this strike did not begin until after the Strike Authorization Vote (SAV).¹³ As a consequence, a majority of the membership was unaware and ill-informed in several ways, our pickets were not engaging and sustainable, disagreement within the membership grew and solidarity dissolved:

• Many were unaware of and confused about the contents of their current contract. Similarly, many were averse to reading the contract language being proposed, and had difficulties understanding how the new articles would affect their daily life.¹⁴
• Most were unaware of the diversity of experiences across the ten campuses, as it pertains to rent burden, food insecurity, inaccessible campuses, inappropriately addressed accommodation requests, or the difficulties associated with being a parent, caretaker, international or undocumented student.¹⁵ Further, most are in the dark regarding differences in pay among departments within their own campus.
• Many were unfamiliar with how our strike built upon previous strikes at the UCs, but also how our strike fits into the current national and global context of labor movements, not only in higher education, but in general. 

These challenges must be overcome in future strikes. Our membership remained largely unaware that almost all campuses will remain largely rent burdened even after “historic” raises¹⁶, blind or apathetic to the lack of access needs addressed¹⁷, and insufficient childcare, dependent healthcare,¹⁸ and NRST remission¹⁹ in our new contract. There are no short-cuts in educating and organizing. To have a healthy Union and active membership, it is important to regularly engage in education. We urge all future members of our Union to maintain a vibrant educational culture that includes political education, labor movement history, contract literacy, and beyond.

Demand transparency 🪟👓

Throughout our strike, there were many issues of transparency – this is a problem because transparency is what allows a healthy democratic process to occur!²⁰ The largest issue was our bargaining team having closed door meetings with the UC administration, which they called “side bars.” We were unsuccessful in fighting against these closed door meetings, despite widespread discontent,²¹ and plan to continue this battle into the future. We remind all future members that it does not have to be that way – successful bargaining and strikes frequently cite the main reason for their success being active rank & file engagement with bargaining sessions.²² Columbia workers sent us a letter²³ when we entered mediation affirming: 

“We strongly encourage your insistence on open bargaining, free from sidebars, not only because we believe that all workers deserve to participate in negotiations that affect their working conditions, but also because transparency and democracy build power. Cozying up to administrators behind closed doors to negotiate more “rapidly,” “flexibly,” etc. shuts out members from their own contract negotiations and does not win concessions from our employers. The visible presence of workers at negotiations and their clear control over the bargaining process powerfully demonstrates to management the commitment of members to winning a fair contract and the strength of your position.”

Create spaces for discussion 💬💭

For most graduate workers at the UCs, the strike they experience here will be the first of their life. On top of being a totally foreign experience, they are very stressful. People need spaces to discuss, learn from each other, and process the events that are occurring. Creating spaces for these activities kill many birds with one stone: they leave room for mental health; provide a space for interpersonal education; and they build genuine solidarity by allowing for people to really meet each other in a raw and personal way. At UCI, we created such a space over Zoom from 7-9PM every evening after the pickets.²⁴ Because we did not have the full support and cooperation of strike captains and picket leaders, this space was not widely advertised – we urge you to combat this trend!

Cultivate a culture of compassion & care ❤️🫂

We cannot expect our colleagues to blindly support and organize with our Union – they will not be inclined to participate in or engage with a Union that is not actively demonstrating its commitment to their needs. As a Union, we have routinely failed many of our colleagues on these fronts. Crucial to creating a stronger, healthier Union will be creating a culture of compassion and care for the needs of our membership. 

For example, why should international and undocumented students put their careers on hold and risk their residency in the U.S. for our strike, when the Union did not create a clear safety net for them in the case of an arrest? There were only blind guarantees that they would be extended the same Union membership protections as their U.S.-citizen colleagues. Still – what would have happened if an international or undocumented student got arrested? Why should our colleagues with disabilities join our organizing task forces when our Union has routinely thrown their needs under the bus?

One of the most deeply upsetting circumstances of our strike was the lack of compassion and care being demonstrated amongst the membership, and from our leadership. Instead of leaders welcoming new organizers and uplifting their ideas, new organizers were often deliberately driven out of OC meetings, or ignored (in group chats or in person). Instead of genuine attempts to understand each others’ points of view, some members loudly attacked one another. Though it was not a majority of the membership engaging in these behaviors, these negative conversations took center stage in campus-wide and cross-campus chats. Ultimately, many members – especially those from our most vulnerable communities – left the strike feeling demeaned, degraded and dehumanized. 

It is vital that as organizers, you curate a compassionate culture. We advocate for calling out behavior rooted in racism, sexism, ableism and any other oppressive structure. We do not advocate for creating hostile environments, and encourage the Rank & File to mitigate hostility by uplifting and centering our most vulnerable colleagues, while where possible, not engaging with the harmful and reactionary commentary.

Tap into everyone’s talents 🎨🎶🗣️

There are many ways a member can support their Union and a strike. On Irvine’s campus, the Rank & File created a robust platform for everyone to contribute. 

Make the R&F reputable and credible ☑️

There are many components of accomplishing this depending on the communication media, and it is important to do so without tone-policing the Rank & File. Ultimately, remember: the Rank & File needs to be able to trust and rely on one another. This being said, this goal will never be accomplished if messages of anger and hate outweigh useful messages of educational, caring and motivational natures. 

For Rank & File organizers, we encourage messaging to the wider membership which:

• Is educational in nature. Where possible and relevant, make sure you have receipts and cite your sources. Otherwise, why should the membership believe you more than anyone else? Accurate and accessible information empowers the membership to not only make informed decisions, but also to communicate their stances in an effective manner, create powerful media, and so much more!
• Is motivational. Strikes are incredibly stressful, but well-motivated. Make sure the membership doesn’t forget why they’re doing this and what is at stake! Remind them that achieving your goals is possible through collective action.
• Has visual appeal. Whether we like it or not, visual aesthetic impacts whether or not people will engage with the content you are sharing, and how seriously they will take it – whether it be a google document like this, or a social media post. We think pretty is powerful ✨! But, you do you.

It is not foreign to our Union to squash any ‘oppositional’ views on bargaining, and to try to suppress such members of the Rank & File.²⁵ We saw this first-hand, while those who were dissatisfied with the contract organized “No” vote campaigns. Union leaders painted the “No” vote crowd as “right-wing union busters”²⁶ and liars²⁷ at best. More history is needed.

❓ FAQ ❓

How do we get faculty involved?

The first step is to realize that there are two types of faculty on our campuses: those who are tenure-track faculty, and those who are non-tenure-track. The latter are “Federation” faculty represented by the UC AFT, and the former are “Senate” faculty who are not represented by a Union, but whose rights are advocated for by CUCFA. Federation faculty typically do not have as much freedom in how they can support our strikes, while Senate faculty have a great deal of freedom. Use the UC AFT and CUCFA websites to understand the rights of your faculty, and we strongly encourage reaching out to leadership of the UC AFT and CUCFA to assist in solidarity-building between student workers and faculty, and for organizing efforts amongst the faculty themselves. At UCI, we organized a successful town hall on Zoom with a rally at the picket that followed, and we also organized a cross-campus teach-in on faculty rights and solidarity with over 200 attendees.

With the support of the UC AFT and CUCFA and with knowledge of the rights of both Federation and Senate faculty, reach out to your department’s faculty both personally (e.g. in a one-on-one meeting or email) and collectively (with a signed departmental letter). Reach out to your department chair, encourage them to write letters of support, and to organize faculty meetings to discuss the strike and faculty rights. Encourage your department’s faculty to get in touch with faculty from the same department on the other UC campuses, too.

📓 Resources 📓

Here, we will provide a list of resources that were created for and/or used throughout our Fall 2022 strike. We strongly encourage you not to reinvent the wheel for resources that already exist! 

1. Strike Links Compilation: this is a spreadsheet where we compiled links with important information and resources, sorted by source and purpose. It was shared widely in cross-campus chats, and was updated multiple times a day. The permissions are set such that anyone with the link can comment, so folks could leave links for us to incorporate if we missed something. All of the resources listed below come from this spreadsheet, and we encourage you to sift through any other useful resources on this sheet while you are still in the pre-strike “educating” phase of your movement.
2. No Vote FAQ: in this document, the first nine questions will likely be applicable to all future strikes, at least in the near future. They address what happens if the membership votes “No” on a tentative agreement, and concerns frequently raised by our Union’s leadership, that we feel are often used as fear-mongering tactics. These include the threat of impasse, impasse-mediation, and unilateral contract imposition, and intertwined in these answers is the power filing valid unfair labor practices (ULPs) has for us, and how they affect the legal process. 
3. 5 Lies Response: an example of responding productively to reactionary propaganda that paints dissatisfied members as bratty liars. It is important that these responses are created rapidly in response to such propaganda, and shared in every space the original propaganda circulates. For this to be accomplished, it is important that the membership be well-versed and educated! You’ll note that the original propaganda is completely un-cited, while this response is fully cited.
4. Long-Haul Strike FAQ: a detailed and cited FAQ addressing the benefits of a longer strike and how to achieve this sustainably, when it comes to fighting for a truly transformational contract by hitting more of the University’s pressure points (such as grade and research withholding, accreditation, and so on).
5. https://payusmoreucsc.com/ : 

1.  See here for the voting numbers on each campus. ↩︎
2. Check out the preamble of the 2018 UAW constitution, in which on top of p.4 it states “Essential to the UAW’s purpose is to afford the opportunity for workers to master their work environment; to achieve not only improvement in their economic status but, of equal importance, to gain from their labors a greater measure of dignity, of self-fulfillment and self-worth.”
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3. But also please be wary if you’re delving into illegal waters, and know your bylaws (2865 here, SRU still in the works). If you do, be aware of the risks you’re taking, do your best to mitigate those risks,  and communicate those risks clearly to everyone you’re involving. ↩︎
4. During this strike, “official” UAW polls were administered via Jotform. There were only two polls, sent out on December 4th and 7th, the last day of week 3 and middle of week 4, after the UC’s “last, best, and final” offer on December 2nd (see poll results here). It was in fact not the UC’s final offer, as we voted to enter voluntary mediation on December 9th. ↩︎
5. Unfortunately, we started very late – the first cross-UC poll went out in week three. The report didn’t come out until December 15th (end of week 4), and can be found here, and qualitative analysis here. ↩︎
6. We cite letters, testimonials and works authored by the Disability Justice Coalition (this press release, this open letter and this explainer on the Public Health article, this Access Needs narrative, this article, and both this and this letter from the disabled community asking folks to vote “no”), international and undocumented workers (this open letter, this letter on NRST, these notes from a public forum and these testimonials from non-US citizens), and parents (this ‘single moms vote no’ letter, this parents’ letter to government officials, and this article on parent workers). There are many more examples of such works than what’s linked in this footnote.
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7.  On Irvine’s campus, we began engaging faculty too late – still, their support was powerful. More than 350 faculty reported withholding over 40,000 grades, according to CUCFA VP Wendy Matsumura. More on faculty support in the faculty involvement section of the FAQ. ↩︎
8. As is well described in the first subsection of question 3 in the Long Haul FAQ developed by Saul Ivan Quintero Macias (UCLA, Psychology) – roughly speaking, while roughly half, or less than half of people engaged in a majority of picket shift, between 80-90% were withholding most or all of their labor. This corroborates the claim that picket numbers alone are not a reliable measure of strike strength. According to Figure 14 of the R&F poll, over 50% of those withholding all labor did not attend most of the picket shifts.
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9. Some examples include, but are not limited to: procuring and preparing food and materials for strikers, providing post-picket care (such as spaces to vent and process) and programming (general assemblies, teach-ins, strategy meetings), completing data analysis for polls, creating media to engage our student body and wider public in the strike, creating accessible educational resources, etc.
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10. As determined by our General Assemblies, a very common complaint of UC Irvine pickets was that a majority of the time, we were walking around in circles chanting the same chants over and over again. It didn’t feel disruptive, and did not boost morale. It would be fair to claim that this repetitive activity didn’t encourage others to engage productively with our strike, either. There was a great desire for a wider range of activities.
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11. See Figure 4 of the Rank & File poll report, here.
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12.  See the UAW poll results here.
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13. Held October 26th through November 2nd. A member of the UCI organizing committee (OC) asked in a weekly meeting a week prior to the BOMMM whether we had plans for food, activities, and hybrid/remote roles during the strike. A ‘regular’ organizing leader dismissed the question, saying we didn’t have time to address it in this meeting, and that we’d get to that after the BOMMM and SAV. The authors witnessed this in person. ↩︎
14. According to Figure 17 of the Rank & File poll, less than 30% strongly agreed that they understand the proposals currently being negotiated. ↩︎
15. A testimonial blog was created partially for this purpose, but remains largely unknown.
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16. See appendices A & B in this ASE wages report on all campuses, these rent analyses for one bedroom and two bedroom rent across all campuses as SRs or ASEs, and this useful visualization of rent burden. As supplemental data, here is UAW’s data on average monthly housing cost by campus and title, and here is UCOP’s data on on-campus and off-campus rent at all ten campuses.
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17. Here is an example of an unfortunate post being discussed in the UC Disability Justice chat on Signal that was active throughout our strike. In the original post, a member of the disabled community says “I’m truly overjoyed about the access needs/accommodations articles agreed to by the 2865 and SRU bargaining teams. As a disabled person, it’s been frustrating having to navigate the labyrinth process of getting accommodations unsupported.” To this post, one person in the chat responds “Y’all, what in the Stockholm syndrome,” and another responds “……who’s going to tell them.” Later on, somebody else responds “oh no oh they’re in for a nasty shock,” “also the reasonable accommodations is literally……the same……” How is it possible that a member of the disabled community could be so misinformed on the contents of the Reasonable Accommodations article? Well, our Union’s messaging (if the link doesn’t work, use waybackmachine to December 26th, 2022) as well as propaganda disseminated by the “yes” vote team boasted access needs wins. See, for example, the second argument in this (nasty) “5 lies” graphic. Our team formulated a detailed and cited response to each of the “5 lies” points, here. ↩︎
18. See bottom of page 1 and top of page 2 here and page 3 here for cited analysis of how parents still have to pay ~$800-$2000/month out of pocket for childcare, and how very few qualify for dependent healthcare. ↩︎
19. See this and this letter on NRST, as well as this example of how the NRST remission in our contract was in fact not new. If the website changes and it is not clear what the previous link points to, here is a screenshot of UCD referencing UCOP’s waiver of NRST for three years post-candidacy.
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20. See the Concord Teachers Association “Seven Steps to Opening Up Bargaining” article, on the prolific Labor Notes website for labor movement organizers. ↩︎
21. See this open letter against closed-door bargaining with sixteen and a half pages of signatures. See also the transcript to a Caucus in which closed-door meetings were discussed, and this evidenced explainer of open- vs. closed-door bargaining. ↩︎
22.  For example, Merrie Najimy (president of the Concord Teachers Association during their 2015 contract negotiations in Concord, Massachusetts after they adopted an open negotiating model):  “I think it’s the most powerful way that we’ve ever bargained, and we won the best contract that we’ve ever won,” or Megan Hilman (from CUPE 3903, representing teaching assistants at York University in Toronto, on the open-negotiations model): “[it is t]he number one reason we have strong collective agreements.” Quotes and more examples taken from this article.
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23. See the full letter here.
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24.  Here’s the original advertisement! We had anywhere between one and forty people showing up each time, and we conveyed feedback to the picket leaders (though they didn’t really listen to us, so we stopped gathering feedback for them). ↩︎
25. See this call to action on democratic union organizing from December 21st, 2022. The letter describes actions of paid UAW staff and leadership censoring and organizing push-back against members inclined to vote “No” on the tentative agreement during a UCSF townhall. ↩︎
26. Third paragraph here. ↩︎
27. “5 Lies” propaganda (here and here), that spread massive amounts of misinformation for the purpose of what is practically a smear campaign against the “No” vote collective as a whole. Our detailed response to this propaganda can be found here.
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