The authority of the University of California (UC) is being challenged at an unprecedented scale, as the largest academic worker strike in US history enters its fifth week. Systematic organizing by thousands of workers across the state has resulted in the widespread suspension of cutting-edge research projects and thousands of class cancellations and ungraded assessments.

After multiple volleys at the bargaining table, as well as in the streets, the UC continues to stonewall on all the major demands put forth by UAW Local 2865 and Student Researchers United–UAW (SRU-UAW), the unions representing graduate student workers and student researchers –– including a substantive wage increase, adequately expansive health care coverage, and the remission of both extra tuition paid by non-California residents and a xenophobic fee exacted from primarily international student workers. (Postdoctoral and academic researchers, represented by UAW Local 5810, ratified their own contracts on Friday, December 9, the end of the fourth week of the strike.)

Jacobin’s Cyn Huang spoke with striking workers at UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and UC Santa Cruz about the state of the strike, and how union members are feeling at this contentious and pivotal moment.