UC Grad Students Fired For Demanding Living Wage

FEATURING ZIA PUIG – Mass protests led by graduate students on strike at the University of California in Santa Cruz have dominated their campus. The grad students are demanding that the University pay them Cost of Living Adjustments or COLA. Graduate assistants first went on a “grade strike” in December which turned into a full-blown strike this year. UC Santa Cruz then fired about 80 students involved in the strike, further escalating the situation. The school campus has been forced to shut down and cancel classes, police have been brought in, and faculty and undergraduate students have been striking in solidarity.

Zia Puig, Fired PhD Student from UC Santa Cruz in Feminist Studies with Designated Emphases in Astronomy and Astrophysics & Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. She worked as the Graduate Coordinator at The Disability Resource Center.