Happy Strikesgivng! - Poster of the Week
Updated: Dec 8, 2022
Same Struggle Same Fight
Artist Unkown
Circa 2021
California
CSPG celebrates the union organizing taking place in California and across the country.
On Monday, November 14th, approximately 48,000 academic workers across all ten UC campuses began striking for livable wages and benefits. University of California graduate students workers, researchers, postdoctoral students and teaching assistants are rallying on campuses in the largest strike in U.S. higher education history, and the largest labor stoppage in the U.S. since 2019.
The UC's have a long history of unfair labor practices. The lower poster from a UCLA labor rally was made more than a decade earlier. We believe the upper poster was made between 2019 -2021. If you have any information regarding the above UC workers on strike poster, or a physical copy that can be added to the archive, please reach out to cspg@politicalgraphics.org
UCLA Pays Poverty Wages
Artist Unkown
Offset, Circa 2008
Los Angeles, CA
30443
Demonstrators are demanding fair compensation and cost of living adjustments that bridge the gap between their low salaries, inequitable living costs, and rent burdens. A push for a minimum of $54,000 annually for graduate workers and $70,000 for postdoctoral workers, a 14% pay increase for academic researchers, plus improved child care subsidies, enhanced health care coverage, better accessibility for workers with disabilities, lower tuition rates for international students, and sustainable transportation benefits are being negotiated.
On Wednesday, November 16th part-time faculty at The New School and Parson School of Design went on strike. Protesters are pushing for fair wages, affordable and accessible healthcare, and job security. Starbucks employees across the nation have been striking since July. Northern California registered nurses and nurse practitioners across 21 Kaiser Permanente locations are set to hold a two-day strike Monday Nov. 21st and Tuesday Nov. 22nd. We will feature these in future Posters of the Week.
The labor movement is picking up momentum again after years of steady decline due to changes in the labor market and increasingly oppressive government labor practices. After WWII, the Taft-Hartley Act (1947) waged class war against organized labor. Class war against the working class was accelerated under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s and hasn't stopped. This year's renewed and growing union efforts show that workers are rediscovering union power.
Happy Strikesgiving!
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References:
Thousands of UC Academic Workers Continue Massive Statewide Strike in Demand for Living Wage
Labor Unrest at UC, Kaiser and Starbucks Across California | San Jose Insider
Core Demands | UAW Academic Workers
New School Part-Time Faculty to Strike Wednesday | New School Free Press
New School Part-Time Faculty Union
Starbucks Workers Protest Company's Decision to Close Several Seattle Stores | KIRO 7 News