Friday, 2/28/97
Graduate union collects signatures to support rights
Graduate union collects signatures to support rights
By Scott P. Stimson
Daily Bruin Contributor
Collective bargaining isn’t a gathering of hippies playing
monopoly at the nearby commune. Rather, it is the right of a
recognized union to negotiate with an employer on all sorts of
work-related issues.
And recognition to collectively bargain with the university is
what the Student Association of Graduate Employees (SAGE) are
demanding from university administrators.
On Thursday, SAGE volunteers spent the day collecting signatures
in Royce Quad and canvassing the campus for signatures.
SAGE will present the signatures gathered yesterday to the
administration in an attempt to show student support for the
union.
The 3,300-member union of teaching and research assistants used
the tabling to participate in a "National Day of Action" for
student employee unions.
And while unions on 28 other campuses across the country held
rallies, the extent of the "action" at UCLA consisted of
informational picketing and signature gathering by a handful of
graduate students.
However, the university’s decision not to recognize SAGE remains
unchanged and has been unwavering even in the light of a recent
strike by teaching assistants that disrupted classes during eighth
week of Fall Quarter.
While SAGE joins with its fellow organizations at other
universities by gathering signatures from supportive students, the
group claims it has a stronger statement to make this Spring
Quarter if the UCLA administration does not recognize the group as
a union.
"The membership (of SAGE) has already authorized a strike to
happen sometime this academic year," said Tanya Mann, SAGE
organizer and UCLA alumna. Thursday’s action "(was) a way of
putting pressure on the university in order to avoid a strike," she
added.
Whether or not SAGE decides to strike next quarter depends on
whether Chancellor Young changes his long-held stance and
recognizes SAGE.
But Young’s pending retirement and exit from the UCLA stage may
usher in a change in the university’s policies – and these changes
may involve SAGE.
That is a possibility of change which has not been lost on SAGE
members.
"There is hope that the new blood will look rationally at our
right for recognition and end the appeal of the board’s decision,"
Mann said, alluding to UCLA’s appeal of a Public Employee Relations
Board decision late last year that found SAGE a union ready for
recognition from the university at any time.
"The point is to stress that this (picketing) is a national
movement," said Mike Miller, a paid SAGE organizer. "You can’t have
something happening at 28 different campuses and not have something
going on (at UCLA)," he asserted.