Black Lives Matter at Work

COPS IN THE HOUSE OF LABOR
7
How One Union Is Taking on Cops
in the House of Labor, Step by Step
As told by members of the University of California
grad employee union
1. In 2010, graduate workers in the University of California system
organized Academic Workers for a Democratic Union as a caucus within
the local union, UAW 2865. Many of these workers were involved in the
massive, statewide protests in the Fall of 2009. Under previous union
leadership, half of the elected Joint Council positions were vacant, and
most of the power was vested in the ten-member Executive Board. In
2011, AWDU took over union leadership.
2. The union built power by organizing in coalition with students, unions,
and social justice groups. It staged militant contract fights and won
demands beyond wages and benefits, from all-gender restrooms to
funding for undocumented graduate workers.