In a historic strike of around 48,000 academic workers across the University of California system, unionized employees are pushing for better compensation and protections, as their work stoppage on Tuesday continued to cause noticeable disruptions to campus research, teaching and grading.
After the first day of the strike — which has no set end date — university officials Monday evening called for a "neutral private mediator" to help reach a compromise. Union leaders, however, continue to call on UC officials to come back to the table to bargain.
"We really want to get to negotiations as soon as possible; our teams are ready around the clock," said Nick Geiser, a bargaining team representative with the Student Researcher Unit — the only one of the four guilds that university officials met with Monday. He said in two hours of bargaining, they were able to reach tentative agreements on three priorities about recruiting and educating new members — but progress was not made on high-priority demands, like increasing compensation or improving support for working parents.
