Update:
Thank you everyone who took a moment to sign this letter. UC and the student-worker TA union have now reached an agreement. Details of the agreement by UC and the student’s union are available on the UAW Student Worker Local 2865 site at: http://www.uaw2865.org/ and the LA Times also has some press coverage. We are no longer collecting signatures.
Dear Colleagues,
For many of us, our teaching assistants are central to our pedagogy. They work the most closely with our students, and are most closely involved with our students’ individual progress. Our universities depend on them in many ways. As you all know, despite a series of system-wide labor actions and nearly a year of negotiating, our teaching assistants remain without a contract.
The SCFA is sponsoring a petition, to be delivered to President Napolitano, to demonstrate system-wide faculty support for a speedy resolution to teaching assistant contract negotiations. We believe that a strong showing by faculty system-wide can help make the case to the central administration that better working conditions for teaching assistants is not simply a matter between teaching assistants and the administration, but is a pressing concern for all UC faculty.
We invite ALL faculty-both Academic Senate members and AFT members-at ALL campuses to sign the petition, forward the link widely, and encourage your colleagues to sign as well.
For more information on TA labor activities and demands, please consult the TA union website at http://www.uaw2865.org
To sign the petition (the text of which is also reproduced below), please go to the petition page at http://ucscfa.org/petition2/
In solidarity,
The SCFA