TL;DR: UC has proposed fewer TAs and massive cuts to TA pay and benefits. Come to the Work-In tomorrow starting at 10am outside Soda 380 to decisively reject this proposal and demand real staffing increases.
Cut TA appointments by 15%. Cut enrollment by 11%. And cut wages & benefits (including remission) by 76%. This is the university’s latest proposal for the EECS/DS departments. The number one priority of ASEs is to increase staffing in the departments, but—after more than a week of waiting—the proposal that the university passed across the bargaining table today will make nearly every problem in the department worse than it is today.
Here’s what was in John DeNero’s proposal on behalf of the university:
- No guaranteed increases to staffing.
- A non-binding “commitment” to adhere to the university’s “sustainable staffing model,” which involves the following changes to enrollment/appointments:
- Cut enrollments by 11%
- Cut TA headcount by 15%
- Cut 20-hour TAs by 7%
- Cut 8-hour TAs by 18%
- Increase tutor/reader appointments by 39% to supplement some of the TA cuts.
In addition for these staffing figures that will harm course quality, the university has also proposed a compensation scheme that will be bad for ASEs:
- No tuition remission for any undergrad TA, including at 20 hours.
- All undergraduate salaried ASEs, including TAs, become hourly.
- Immediate reduction in total 8-hour TA wages & benefits (including remission) by 53%
- By 2024, wages & benefits for 8-hour TAs will be 76% lower than what is guaranteed by our union contract.
- The university did not offer compensation figures for head TAs
(You can read their full supposal here, and the entire history of bargaining at our bargaining tracker.)
For 5 weeks, ASEs have been bargaining in good faith with the university to increase staffing in the departments. In our previous proposal, we agreed in principle to take lower remissions and wages than those under the union contract, saving the department over $700,000. However, the University’s last proposal guarantees no increases to staffing. Our goal is to increase staffing. We are not seeking further increases to our wages in the contract.
We can and must put pressure on the university to fully fund the EECS/DS departments. And you have the power to change it. Here’s what we need every ASE and student in EECS/DS to do.
Work-in at the Soda 3rd floor hallway outside Soda 380: Starting at 10 a.m., workers will occupy the 3rd floor of Soda Hall and do a “work-in” to show the university that we mean business and that we will not stand for this insulting and absurd supposal. Join us and work on grading, homework, projects, or anything else you were planning to work on.
File grievances To put pressure on the university to fully fund EECS/DS, ASEs across the departments are beginning to file grievances relating to overwork, misclassification, and other rampant violations. It’s super easy—I just filed my first grievance yesterday. See our grievance guide here and reply to this email if you’d like someone to reach out and help you file a grievance.
Call and email EVCP Ben Hermalin at 510-642-1961 and hermalin@berkeley.edu (cc: EVCP@berkeley.edu) to tell him to fully fund instruction in the EECS/DS departments. You can use a template email/script here, but make this your own — describe the unique and troubling circumstances within the EECS/DS departments that you have personally experienced as a student/ASE.
And keep calling and emailing every single day until the university funds instruction.
In solidarity,
Gabe Classon