GSI Strike Set for This Week

Even with a UC-wide GSI strike set for this week, many graduate students across campuses grappling with the decision to strike remain torn between their loyalties to both students and the union.

Josh Sheptow, head GSI for the UC Berkeley philosophy department, is still trying to reconcile these competing obligations.

Approaching the decision with the methodology of an academic in training, Sheptow said the question boils down to whether the need for a strike outweighs the burden to his students.

"How do you weigh the worries you have with what the university will be able to do ... with the tangible harm that will come to our students if we strike?" Sheptow said.

His sentiment echoes those among many of the 11,000 members in the GSIs, readers and tutors union-a number of whom were unwilling to use their name for this article.

Since many union members have only received a few short, polemical e-mails from union leaders and UC officials, just sifting through the rationale for a strike has been trying, Sheptow said.

The union is calling for GSIs to stop teaching classes and grading papers and final exams until a contract agreement is reached. With the pledge of the clerical workers, nurses and researchers unions to join the walkout, a strike of indefinite length could severely disrupt the university during the frenzy of finals.

The protracted contract negotiations between the union and UC center on two key issues: the right to stage a sympathy strike and the right to resolve workload grievances through a neutral arbitrator instead of through the Academic Senate.

Officially, the union claims a strike is needed to halt UC's multiple unfair labor practices in bargaining. Although the union has filed 72 charges since March, UC officials vehemently deny the legitimacy of these allegations and label them unfair tactics designed to villanize the university.

To Sheptow, the decision on whether to strike hinges on the substantive issues stalling negotiations, not on the multiple unfair labor practice charges filed against UC.

"Almost nobody that I've talked with thinks that unfair labor practices on their own, considered independently, are reason enough to strike" Sheptow said. "So it seems then that if a strike is justified, it will have to be in respect to the issues that are stalling negotiations."

But a strike for these reasons is barred under the current contract.

And the decision to strike is not as straightforward as it was during the last major GSI strike in 1998 when the motivation was to force UC to recognize the new union.

This time around, the justification for a strike is harder to call. Many union members said it was unclear whether the walkout is a necessary course of action

After all, Sheptow said, "We're not a bunch of Oompa Loompas toiling in the basement of Sproul, getting exploited. Most GSIs feel that our pay and benefits are reasonable."

One of the key challenges Sheptow and other GSIs expressed is the lack of information-most GSIs have not been given access to the proposed contracts or the unfair labor practices charges.

"When you're going to embark on something as drastic as a strike at the most critical time of the semester, not to have the appropriate information is almost unconscionable," Sheptow said.

In a response, Sheptow organized a meeting for philosophy GSIs today to discuss and clarify the reasons for the strike with union officials.

Regardless, Sheptow's and other GSIs' ultimate decision to strike or not to strike is a double-edged sword.

If they decide to cross the picket line, they may face disappointment from other strikers. And if they walk out, they may have to deal with angry students.

"In the end we want to see our students do well," Sheptow said. "Asking us to sever those ties is a touchy proposition. To make a well-informed decision, we need the proper information."

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