Submission: Firing of Berkeley lecturer signals need for UC worker solidarity

By Cody Trojan

On Sunday, Alexander Coward blew the whistle on the shadowy practices of hiring and firing lecturers at the University of California. He issued a powerful statement after his year-to-year contract was not renewed by UC Berkeley’s mathematics department.

This is not the first time Coward has thrust himself into the spotlight. Coward, who was a lecturer at Berkeley, made headlines two years ago when he issued a braggadocious broadside undermining his fellow UC workers.

In the fall of 2013, the UC hospital workers, groundskeepers and janitors who make up the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 union went on strike to rectify the dangerous staffing policies that put patients at risk at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and other UC hospitals. The strike garnered two very different responses.

Teaching assistants at UCLA and across the UC system, who make up the United Auto Workers Local 2865 union, responded by striking in sympathy with their fellow workers, joining the fight to make the UC better for everyone it serves.

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[Source]: Daily Bruin