Graduate students fired by California university for withholding grades during strike for higher pay

The University of California in Santa Cruz fired 54 graduate students who were working as teaching assistants because they refused to submit grades while striking for higher wages.

The teaching assistants started a grading strike, without the approval of the union that represents graduate students, in hopes of negotiating higher wages. The students wanted a raise of $1,412 to help pay for rising rent prices near the campus. The strike started with 200 teaching assistants withholding grades in December and escalated to many teaching assistants holding public protests and refusing to attend classes or assist in research.

The university argued that the firings were necessary because students had broken the bargaining agreements already in place by the graduate student union that had not sanctioned the protest. University of California system President Janet Napolitano warned students on Feb. 14 that the grading strike was “not the way” to negotiate with the school.

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