Centering Disability Justice in Academic Labor Organizing: The Case of the UC Grad Worker Strike

In this episode we speak with Mary Jirmanus Saba, Dana Ernst, and Sarah Abusaa. Mary, Dana and Sarah are grad student workers and union organizers with United Auto Workers 2865. In their union, Mary, Dana and Sarah organize for disability justice and their work highlights the intersectional nature of labor struggles.

As listeners to this podcast might know, in fall 2022, graduate student workers in the University of California system went on strike. Our guests played a role in writing the language for two contract articles dealing with workplace conditions: an Access Needs article that would have reduced barriers to access for workers, and a Public Health and Safety Article. The strike won wage increases, and this quickly became the dominant story. Unfortunately, the Access Needs and Public Health and Safety articles were not included in the final contract. As we learn from our guests, the union leadership didn’t take these rank-and-file demands seriously, and then tried to coopt the disability justice lens.

We begin the interview by asking Mary, Dana and Sarah to discuss the ableist barriers graduate student workers face when attempting to get their access needs met. We then ask them to discuss how Covid-related health and safety activism aligned with disability justice organizing as the strike approached. From there we get into the strike, covering the joy of building power and the heartbreak of being silenced by union leadership.

Interviewee Bios:

Mary Jirmanus Saba is a geographer, filmmaker, mother and member of the Peoples CDC.

Sarah Abusaa is an ecologist, epidemiologist, organizer, and current grad student. 

Dana Ernst is an oral historian and multimodal anthropologist, member of the Justice Coalition, and current grad student.

Links discussed in the interview:

University of California Workers Center Disability Justice in Union Organizing by Mary Jirmanus Saba

UCLA Community Members Stage Sit-In To Demand Hybrid Learning Options

Draft Language of Access Needs Article

Disability Justice Articles FAQs

UC Justice Coalition Substack

UC Justice Coalition Linktree