RESIST UCI

We’re ready to fight UC Irvine’s ableist policies until it commits to Universal Access. Especially in this pandemic, students should be able to self-determine whether they need to continue learning online. No questions asked. No documentation needed. Join us!

It’s absurd that @nytimes reports on the surge in anti-LGBTQIA+ activity as if they play no role. The NYT has repeatedly offered space to right-wing figures that normalize treating trans and queer people as a threat. Falls right in line with NYT’s history of Nazi sympathizing.

Dear everyone, I hope your quarter is going well. My name is Sophia. I've been the Co-chair and External Affairs Coordinator for UC Santa Barbara Associated Students Commission on Disability Equity since 2019. I'm contacting you because I'm doing a senior honors research project

@InclusionUci do you have anything to say? Will you remain silent as the UC takes punitive actions that will disproportionately harm low-income students, first generation students, LGBTQIA+ students, and students of color? Or will you remain an empty promise?

The UC has decided to punish us for striking by retroactively docking our pay. This is evil. Standard TA pay is $23,000 (sometimes lower). UC’s commitment to “inclusive excellence” is mere PR. These punitive actions will disproportionately hurt low income students.

folks really gotta start questioning how radical they really are because not being covid cautious during this mass disabling event is at odds with being inclusive, accessible, intentional, community oriented, creating safe space, practicing consent, siding with the marginalized.

If you’re a professor, please try to understand why grad students might not want to give uncompensated labor to the UC. The behavior of the UC throughout this process had been abusive and abhorrent. We aren’t about to provide it with the charity of our unpaid work.

Screw the UC. If they didn’t want grading to be a mess, they should have bargained in good faith. Instead, they dragged their feet the entire way, resulting in dozens of Unfair Labor Practices. Screw that. If they want us to make up strike grading, they can pay us more.

Are you a TA anywhere in the University of California? Is the professor you TAed for asking you to complete grading now that the strike is over? Most TAs have no contractual obligation to do that work. Say no, unless UC will compensate. Contact a union rep if you’re unsure.

Being radical is only a contribution to change-making if you do the everyday work of winning coworkers & neighbors over to action. If you're mainly using a radical lens to discredit others then you're undermining us, making it harder to recruit leaders + take substantive lessons.

Did our tweets help you make a decision on how to vote for on the UC contracts? Please let us know—and if you feel comfortable, share a little while by commenting here. We tried to model the type of conversations we need to build a stronger union. How did that connect with you?

By largely failing to engage with the imperfections of the contract, the yes camp dampened the opportunity to build a more informed, more powerful membership. Workers can handle complex, nuanced information. Don’t be afraid to provide it.

Most yes vote arguments framed the contract as an amazing win. Look, it’s important to articulate the arguments for voting yes. But workers aren’t dupes. We know this contract contained disappointments and there’s a lot of work left to do.

TAs: If you’re asked to do grading or other work to make up for disrupted strike work, do not just say yes. Many TAs’ appointment terms ended before the strike concluded, meaning you are not obligated to return to work during your winter break. Look it up. And say no.

But regardless of how you vote, we hope there’s one thing you can take away from this strike: Screw the UC and screw the neoliberal capitalist, racist, ableist, heterosexist, nationalist model of education. Regardless of the contract vote outcome, this fight isn’t over.

@ruth_e_hanna @uaw2865 @sruuaw We most definitely did not win disability justice in this contract. The contract enshrines the rationing and policing system of “accommodation” rather than providing what we initially asked: the ability for individuals to self-determine our access needs.

Accommodation ≠ access. While access explodes and expands liberation onto new horizons, accommodation wedges and entrenches the status quo. In this essay I will

@uaw2865 I think it's important that leadership bear in mind moving forward that thousands of members voted against this agreement bc they thought it was too weak. I am proud of this strike but I am very aware of the people who are left behind by this agreement & the fight that remains.