GSWOC International Student Committee email back up

Dec 19, 2022

Hi everyone,

We’re hosting another info session and discussion on Tuesday (12/20) at 12pm over Zoom. This info session is specially designed for international student who want to get more involved. We will go over some slides with union basics and then open the floor to discuss and questions. RSVP here to get the Zoom link!

Best, R

Feb 3, 2023

Hi all, In the last info session for international students, a few people raised questions about the UC campaign. Two days ago, I met a UAW person who has worked for UC for about ten years and discussed with him about international students in the UC campaign. The person from UAW shared many information and view from the UC union. Also earlier, a few international student organizers at UC shared their ideas. As there are conversations going on about how to ask international students to support the union, I think it is important to share the information and their views. One thing must be noted first is that, it is never only about international students, it is up to everyone.

If I got anything wrong, please feel free to correct me.

International student representation and involvement

I was told by the UAW person, similar to USC, international students consist of about 50%~60% of students at UC. And historically, they are less involved and under-represented in their union. I was also told that there were more international students involved in the UC campaign this time. We looked at their bargaining team list and found that, for the TA union, there are three international students (3 out of 20). And there are more international students at Student Researcher United. I remember it is about 5 out of 20.

The UAW people told me there is an achievement in this new contract. I was told that UC wanted to remove the existing protection of international students in the old contract. And the union fought against it and successfully kept the existing protection. They even moved the same term from the side letter to a new chapter. According to the UAW person, they both have the same legal effect and it is also a win. I asked about how often this term is used in practice. I was told it was used a few times. It is both happy and sad to hear, once you know it is about hiring back protection for people who can’t return to the US, due to temporary visa renewal delay.

Even though the UAW person didn’t mention it, I do want to note how their bargaining team pushed for more things for international students. As you can see in this tracker, they had five back and forth with UC, from 2022 March to 2022 September. I guess they later on focused on topics like NRST and go on to strike. Line 21 in https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1DKxtUSiKsNNtn8EFWkLgz6ZCXJ-slnh9stfNhGWS_hY/edit#gid=0

We can certainly mention these kinds of protections for international students.

Grievance procedure

When I walked through a building with the UAW person, we met an international student who asked about it and we discussed it for a long time. The grievance procedure would be a key thing for all protection. And it will be defined in the contract. It will be us to determine how the grievance procedure will actually work. As I heard, the grievance will be judged by a third party if the union and the school couldn’t reach an agreement, and it is hard to predict how long it will take for the third party to make the judgment. The third party will be chosen based on the contract, the union and the school will both want the third party to be in their favor.

Collective action

The UAW person mentioned this story to many international students we met during the walk-through. It is about how UCSD tried to fire a post-doc who raised concern about data methodology and how collective action prevented it.

Although it wasn’t mentioned by the UAW person, if you’ve read the full story, you may notice this detail about the grievance. I don’t want to leave any impression that grievance won’t work, it does work. But there will always be times when collective action is needed. UAW filed a formal grievance on Jiang’s behalf on July 15, alleging that her termination violated the union’s collective bargaining agreement. On Aug. 3, San Diego determined that no violation of the bargaining agreement had occurred. UAW objected to that decision, according to the settlement. On Aug. 7, in her seventh month of pregnancy, Jiang’s contract was set to expire, putting her visa in jeopardy. That week, about 100 people picketed in front of the building that houses the pathology department. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/protests-uc-san-diego-agrees-not-fire-chinese-postdoc-raised-concerns-rcna43737

A formal grievance has its own timeline, based on how it is defined in the contract. Also, it may take time for a third party to make the judgment. And when combined with collective action, as in this story about a hundred people picketed for Jiang, we can get a better result. The UAW person especially told us that the supporting network in the internatinal student community is vital. I couldn’t imagine how she went through this as a pregnant woman of color in a foreign country.

We certainly can motivate international students by mentioning grievance procedures and collective action. But remember if all the procedures won’t work, eventually, it is people protecting other people, as we’ve seen in this story.

NRST

The major thing is the NRST. I’m glad we don’t have it here in USC. It is short for Non-Resident Supplemental Tuition, which can be $7,500 per term or up to $15,000 per year for international students, according to the union’s website. They posted many personal stories, and shows how it affects international students: https://uaw2865.org/get-involved-old/endnrst/

The UAW person told us that NRST is a huge source of funding for the UC and the UC admin is extremely unwilling to negotiate or change.

And international student organizers at UC shared with me the concern among international students: They are worried UC admin might cut the NRST remission to make up their loss on wage increases, that’s $15,000 per year per international student. Personally, I guess this concern is the reason for the increase in international students’ involvement. It is important to note that such concern pushes international students towards the union, I think they knew that UC has always been greedy for NRST and the only way to make it better is through the union.

As the UAW person told me, the union fought for international students and, as a result, the existing UC policy of NRST remission was written into the contract. The UAW person explained to me why existing policy writing into the contract is a great win: It can lead to improvement in the future: since it is now in the contract, UC will have to negotiate on it next time.

Also, the remission policy only applies to students with 50% employment. Currently, UC has jobs like 45% of employment, so UC doesn’t have to pay the NRST, which might be $15,000 per year per person. And the UAW person told me, they can file grievances for these students. I later found some UC school seems determined to make some people short of 50% employment. I hope everyone will win their grievances.

Since we don’t have NRST at USC, such great success will be hard to motivate international students here.

In spite of that, international students at UC told me that many departments have better “current practice” than UC policy. Some departments cover more NRST fees. There was concern that departments will try to reduce their own policy to UC policy, so departments can make up for their loss on wage increase. In their new contract, there is a definition about “current practice”, which I think is the same as UC policy and worse than the real “current practice” in some departments. It is on page 26 here, Please correct me if I got it wrong: https://www.fairucnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ASE-Tentative-agreement-20221216.pdf

As for us

Right now, there are worries about USC sending anti-union info, targeting international students. Personally, during the walk through with the UAW person, we talked with several international students, and I have no such worries. All the supports USC currently have offered to international students are not satisfying. Any anti-union message saying there is already enough support from USC for international students would backfire and push more international students towards union.

There is only one thing that USC might try to exploit – fear of losing visa. I believe USC will certainly try to link union with strike and stike with losing visa. I think we don’t have to worry about it. As we’ve all told people, they don’t have to strike if they don’t want to. For Chinese international students, during the UC strike, we spread materials in Chinese by UC organizers about how international students are protected by law if go on strike. Since international students are highly connected across the UC campus and USC, people should have seen how the protection of the law worked during the UC strike. And if USC tries to link union with strike and stike with losing visa, they will certainly fail.

With all these background information, let’s get back to our main topic, what kind of email to send to international students. Especially as people mentioned emails signed by international students.

Collective action?

It seems to be a topic we haven’t touched so far. I don’t think it is a good idea to let international students sign the letter telling other international students that they will be protected by collective action. As people already know international students are always willing to protect each other.

Protection for international students in contract? Based on what the UAW person from UC told me about the effort they put into this and the success they get, as an international student personally, I am worried about the outcome we will get, cause it seems to be a very difficult thing for the UC union. I’ll be glad to hear from people who have different ideas.

If anyone has any idea about what we should send to international students, feel free to reply. Also, we will have a zoom meeting to discuss it. Please refer to this thread for more information: https://groups.google.com/g/gswoc-international/c/6xVeSW1Ct1E

Sorry for midnight email, I just finished writing it. Best, R

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