We are the 3,000 grad workers of @USC, fighting together for better working conditions and a more inclusive academy.
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ALT April 30, 2024 To USC President Carol Folt: I am writing to you as the elected Los Angeles City Controller. My Office serves four million Angelenos, including those who are students, faculty, employees, and members of the USC community. My Office also includes USC alumni. We are alarmed by the USC administration’s response to peaceful on-campus protests organized by USC students. The decision last week to request Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers to forcefully remove and arrest peaceful protestors was an unacceptable violation of their rights, needlessly escalated tensions, and likely chilled the exercise of free speech by students and other members of our community observing the events. Student protests on college campuses are part of a rich tradition of political activism that propels the national conversation on critical issues of human rights and social justice. Students’ right to free speech and assembly must be protected.
ALT Unfair Labor Practice Charge Filed.
ALT GSWOC-UAW Local 872, the union of 3,000 Graduate Student Workers at USC, supports the demands of the broad coalition of USC students, including some Local 872 members, who are occupying Alumni Park in protest of USC’s financial and academic ties to war profiteering and Israeli apartheid.
ALT We reiterate our commitment to the international mass movement of students and academic workers for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and for a Free Palestine.
ALT Under our union contract, grad workers at USC have enforceable nondiscrimination protections, including additional layers of protection against retaliation for engaging in political speech. As grad workers come together to protest for Palestinian liberation on campus and in the streets, it’s important to remember not only the protections we have in our union contract, but also the collective power we have when we fight together.
ALT Local 872 members can report contract violations connected to the protests, including retaliation against grad workers for engaging in political speech, by emailing [email protected]. Together as union members, we can protect our academic freedom and protest for a Free Palestine.
ALT Jackie Johnson smiling and seated outside
ALT Pictured is a filing from the National Labor Relations Board website showing a petition for certification of a labor organization as the representative of a collective bargaining unit. The employer is the President and fellows of Harvard College located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There are 3,100 employees in the proposed bargaining unit made up of All full-time and regular part-time non-tenure-track employees and appointees of Harvard University performing teaching or research, regardless of funding source (paid directly or indirectly), and who work at Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Medical School, or Harvard Divinity School, including Lecturers, Associate Senior Lecturers, Senior Lecturers, Postdoctoral Research Fellows, Instructors, Teaching Assistants, Associates, College Fellows, Curriculum Fellows, Curriculum and Pedagogy Managers, Fellows, Junior Fellows, Peirce Fellows, Preceptors, Assistant Directors, Directors, Research Assistants, and more.