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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
UCLA History & Labor Studies. Posting personal opinions--not UC policy--about labor & migration history, worker organizing, higher ed policy. He/him.
Los AngelesJoined January 2011
2,722 Following
2,524 Followers

Toby Higbie’s Tweets

Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
UC faculty and lecturers: please consider signing on to this letter to state legislators asking their support to resolve the #UCStrike. The way forward requires a significant state reinvestment in public higher education for all
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Anna J Markowitz
@ajmarkowitz
first tweet of several on this: UC colleagues, some of us have drafted a letter to our legislators asking for their support on the side of students, and to consider funding that may help resolve negotiations. please read, and consider signing/sharing: forms.gle/bo2wnXkCU3iKui
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
Past meets present imperfectly, says historian
@NelsonLichtens1
. Some see in #UCstrike echoes 1945 UAW demand for big wage boost w/o price increases. But UAW couldn’t win that even at a moment of maximum power for organized labor. COLA was boss’s idea to avoid bigger change.
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Nelson Lichtenstein
@NelsonLichtens1
1/ I published a biography of UAW leader Walter Reuther more than a quarter century ago, and it seems as if the emergence of COLA - Cost of Living Allowance - in the 1948 and subsequent UAW contracts has again become relevant. Read the biography or these quick historical notes.
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
On Day 1 of Week 2 of #UAWonStrike, a shout out to the organizers driving turnout, strike kitchen volunteers feeding the hungry, musicians keeping the picket lines lively, and also to the negotiators at the table. The work that makes the movement is real work!
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Anna J Markowitz
@ajmarkowitz
so much happening at the inverted fountain !! @uclafa @UAWUCLA #UAWonStrike #uaw2865 #uaw5810 #uawsru
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Katie Porter
@katieporteroc
We are now entering week two of unfair labor practice strikes by UAW-represented academic workers at the University of California. Their talent is what enables UC’s world-class research. I’m leading colleagues to call on UC to reach a resolution and bargain in good faith.
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
Can UC Senate Faculty Respect the UAW Picket Line? Yes, according to UCLA law professors who have analyzed HEERA: webshare.law.ucla.edu/faculty/bibs/z
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Noah Zatz
@NoahZatz
Today we see #UCFacultySolidarity w/ #UAWonStrike. There’s been lots of confusion😕about our legal rights to support & respect the picket line 🪧, including the suggestion UC Senate faculty are often unprotected as “managers” or “supervisors.” This is wrong. A🧵& a 🔗👇. (1/6)
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Toby Higbie Retweeted
Virginia Rose Espino
@VirgiEspino
@UofCalifornia
needs to do better by its workers and its students.
@UCLALabSchool
teachers have been working for several years without a contract. Unfair worker conditions are student learning conditions. Please support their cause by signing the petition 👇
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University Council - AFT
@UCAFT
⁦@UofCalifornia⁩ admin illegally refuses to bargain with academic workers. Sound familiar? It’s happening at the ⁦@UCLALabSchool⁩, where management won’t negotiate with teachers. Please sign in #solidarity to get them to the table! actionnetwork.org/petitions/nego
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
“If you’re undocumented, if you’re poor and an international student, if you don’t come from generational wealth, the odds of you being able to get a graduate degree is slim to none.” UC striker on the impact of our low wage system of graduate education
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Steven Greenhouse
@greenhousenyt
A week into UC strike, little bargaining progress, but support for workers grows UC has proposed paying $2,500 a year in child-care costs, but Tafari pays $2,500 a month The union said the new offer leaves many workers paying 56% of their income on rent latimes.com/california/sto
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
An addendum: California's Higher Ed labor act seems to allow UC and unions to provisionally agree to terms that would not go into effect until passage of additional state funding (HEERA section 3572.3). If not passed, rest of agreement stays in force.
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
As someone who studies the history of labor movement education and communications, I'm very much enjoying the spoof UC account. Parody can be a powerful tool
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zara weinberg ON STRIKE
@weinberz
As a a public education institution, we must remind you that the conditions driving the the strike we’re facing result from the systematic defunding of public institutions and the concentration of wealth by oligarchs. There are no fair working conditions without systemic change.
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Toby Higbie Retweeted
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
@IBJIYONGI
This is an argument for faculty to take the fight to our funding agencies, not to hand wring about how the humanitarian needs of academic workers are difficult to accommodate within existing structures.
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Jane Willenbring 🌱
@jkwillenbring
Replying to @phylogenomics
I support the strike. But it is possible that you are sufficiently famous that you might not realize that not all UC PIs can simply *adjust* to a $20k+/yr increase in grad stipend? That amount is usually outside the ‘wiggle room’ in grant expenditures
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Toby Higbie Retweeted
Stephen C. Ekker, Ph.D.
@scekker
In life science research, the failure to separate didactic classwork from thesis (experiential) learning makes a mess of employment status - largely to the detriment of the PhD students. This isn’t complicated. But NIH grants have not even kept up with inflation. Untenable
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
"Concerns about the graduate education funding model are not new" says today's message from UCLA Academic Senate, citing appeals for change going back to 2012. A 🧵 on the UC academic worker strike causes and possible solutions /1 senate.ucla.edu/news/uaw-strik
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
No doubt the UAW's demands are expensive. The state will need to provide funding, especially for a big expansion of low-cost housing. If the CA legislature wants UC to be a model employer, we will need a reinvestment in public higher education that can serve all of California /12
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
The UC has been unable to resolve issues with pay, housing, and childcare for that it has known about for many years. The UAW is now attempting to address these by leveraging members' collective bargaining rights. The UC could negotiate over housing, over fellowships, etc. /11
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
Universities must bargain in good faith with their unions over employment issues (wages, hours, conditions), but may refuse to negotiate over "student" issues like fellowship support and housing. These are "permissive subjects of bargaining" in negotiations lingo /10
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
So how could the union be part of the solution? In US higher education, graduate students are both students creating new knowledge and employees teaching undergrads and supporting research. Same people, different roles, often at the same time. /9
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
Problem is bigger than graduate education alone said UC Senate report of March 2020: "failure to adequately fund [graduate student instructors] will also create stresses invariably affecting the quality of undergraduate education." And the kicker... /7
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
Next report, in March 2020, was more dire: "The problems of housing and, in some cases, food insecurity facing our graduate students are real and pressing." The half-time work limit makes survival "particularly challenging given the housing situation in coastal California." /6
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
Fast-forward to 2019 study calling for improvement in UC graduate funding that have gone unheeded as the problems grew worse including financial support and lack of mentoring leading to "a strikingly high prevalence of anxiety and depression among academic graduate students" /4
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
Way back in 2012, a report from the UC Academic Senate noted the centrality of grad students to UC's research mission: "the achievements, prestige, and international renown of the University and its faculty would not be possible without" the work of doctoral students. True. /2
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
"Concerns about the graduate education funding model are not new" says today's message from UCLA Academic Senate, citing appeals for change going back to 2012. A 🧵 on the UC academic worker strike causes and possible solutions /1
senate.ucla.edu
UAW Strike and Graduate Education Funding
   To: Academic Senate Faculty Dear Colleagues: This is the third in our series of communications on issues related to the UAW strike that began on November 14, 2022. Our earlier updates are availa...
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Toby Higbie Retweeted
Marcus Rediker
@MarcusRediker
We’ve lost one of the greatest scholar-activists of our time: Staughton Lynd (1929-2022) passed away this morning. He fought for civil rights and working-class justice and against the war in Vietnam and the prison-industrial complex. A life well lived. RIP Brother Staughton.
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
"Divestment is destroying the foundations of the public higher education system. It has led to privatization of public institutions, meteoric tuition growth, rising student debt and a steady destruction of labor rights."
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Trevor Griffey
@TrevorGriffey
Important op-ed by Mia McIver at @UCAFT and Levin Kim at @UAW4121 that argues that the @uaw2865 strike highlights the need to develop a broader vision for the higher education labor movement via @HigherEdLabor. sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
Big crowd getting bargaining update from union leaders. UC told union they didn’t have any space to meet so no bargaining until next week (?!) Crowd shouts, “we got space, show your face!”
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
UCLA law professor thinks recent UC Senate letter on UAW strike is bunk, faculty have right to respect picket line
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Noah Zatz
@NoahZatz
Flabbergasted🤯 to see systemwide UC Academic Senate leadership undermining protections for its own members (Senate faculty like me) & undermining solidarity w/ #UAWonStrike. Its latest guidance letter parrots🦜 administration talking points about the strike. A short 🧵: [1/5]
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Toby Higbie
@TobiasHigbie
State senator María Elena Durazo now speaking
@uaw2865
strikes. “It’s the people’s money that paid for this campus and the people demand a fair contract”
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