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BERKELEY, Calif.—The University of California (UC) here and in Santa Cruz are attempting to add union-busting to the curriculum. In response, hundreds of United Auto Workers (UAW) picket signs have been ringing the campuses as teaching assistants and research assistants strike for recognition of their union.

On Nov. 24, close to 1000 students and workers-including a delegation of unionists from the NUMMI automobile plant in Fremont, Calif.—joined a rally at UC Berkekey to support the strike.

The university says the teaching assistants are not employees because they are also graduate students. They work about 20 hours a week lecturing and grading papers. Three thousand graduate students work part time at these and other jobs that are crucial to the functioning of the university.

As the university's budget is slashed, the graduate students become ever more important. Today they teach 60 percent of the courses. While many of the faculty have tenure and other contractual protections, graduate student employees have virtually none.

In 1983, teachers assistants formed the By BARBARA PUTNAM union Association of Graduate Student Employees (AGSE). In 1987, AGSE members voted to affiliate with District 65 of the UAW to gain resources and organizing experience and to become part of the nationwide union movement. Graduate student employees at the Universities of Michigan, Oregon, and several other states have also affiliated with the UAW.

It took several years for AGSE to win recognition as the student employees' organization. Finally, in 1989, the administration at UC Berkeley signed an agreement covering job posting, paid healthcare, tuition waivers, and workload limits, which protect the quality of teaching on the campus.

Last September, the UC administration refused to renew the union recognition established in 1989. They said their authority to reach an agreement with AGSE had been revoked by the Board of Regents. This unelected body of wealthy conservatives was thus able to veto union representation for 3000 university employees.

UC Berkeley negotiators broke off talks with AGSE on Nov. 12. AGSE members responded by striking and setting up a picket line. It became a mass picket line of several hundred, as undergraduates boycotted classes and joined their teachers marching around the campus. With the support of the students, 70 percent of the classes were cancelled the first day.

A statement by AGSE said, 'This strike will end immediately if the university promises AGSE in writing, a place at the negotiating table to work on agreements about teaching conditions, workload, and other employment issues. Such a place is granted to all other university employees."

University officials replied they were willing to discuss "matters of mutual interest" only through graduate student groups that are already recognized. They cited the graduate associations in various departments, schools, and colleges of the university.

Andy Cowell, spokesperson for AGSE, pointed out they always had the option of joining a graduate association. "But AGSE is a labor union, and to be an effective representative of labor, you cannot be part of management."

Meanwhile 300 AGSE members on the UC Santa Cruz campus have struck on the same issues. This is the culmination of two years of fruitless discussion. Besides earning broad student support, the strikers have won the endorsement of the Santa JOSEPH RYAN/SOCIALIST ACTION Cruz Central Labor Council. Teamsters and unionized local transit services will not cross the picket line.

The Board of Regents, who will have the deciding voice, are determined to oust AGSE-UAW from the statewide UC system. While they are inflicting budget cuts and fee hikes on the students, confronting a union with the power of the UAW behind it is the last thing the Regents want.

The Regents have just increased student fees by over $600 per year starting in 1993. Meanwhile, graduate student instructors have lost 11.3 percent of their real take-home earnings to inflation, tax increases, and fee hikes. Graduate student researchers have lost 14.6 percent.

AGSE is trying to shut down the Berkeley campus completely by maintaining solid picket lines that students will refuse to cross. But the administration is pressuring the students by pointing to the interruption of their education.

So far, a majority of the students remain solidly with the strikers. The series of fee hikes are endangering their education more than the AGSE strike.To win this strike, heavy pressure must be exerted. It will take not only the support of the students, but the heavy muscle of the auto workers on behalf of their student brothers and sisters.