About

Academic Workers for a Democratic Union was formed by graduate students who had been actively organizing against the implementation of budget cuts in the UC since summer 2009. We felt it inexcusable that our union was not at the forefront of this fight for public education–everywhere grad students were self-organizing, working with undergraduates and other workers in the UC, but without the benefit of support or structure from our union. For the past year, we have been working to reinvigorate our local, doing the basic work of the union (running new ASE orientations, informing members about rights, holding membership meetings) as well as working to create a new tradition of active, rank-and-file run organization. We’ve done this through holding departmental meetings, creating effective communication networks, and organizing both for our contract negotiations and in the fight for public education.

AWDU has grown to every UC Campus. You can get more information about us at the following websites and blogs established by campus AWDU groups:

www.awdu.org

UC Berkeley
UC Irvine
UCLA
UC Santa Cruz