Justin Clement - Unit Chair
Unions are under threat today. This is a critical time for our membership, as UC administrators and government officials may threaten our very right to collectively bargain. The debacle in Wisconsin should be our Alamo. “Remember Wisconsin” should be our rallying cry. We face a constant struggle to prevent the UC from eroding our rights and benefits. I am committed to creating a strong grass-roots base of support for our Union. I would also like to explore ways in which our Union can act on the offense, rather than the defense, in order to support our rights and place within the UC system.
I bring a lot of strengths to the table. First and foremost, I consider myself an academic. As someone committed to working within theuniversity academy for the rest of my professional career, I believe I will make a good representative. Second, I have some experience organizing, as I served as the founder and president of a student-run organization at The College of William & Mary. Lastly, I have both a science and humanities background. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Physics, and am working on my Ph.D. in History. With this diverse background, I hope I can meet the needs of our membership.
I would be honored to have your vote, and I promise to be receptive to the needs of the Union membership.
Nick Perrone – Recording Secretary
My name is Nick Perrone and I’m running for Campus Unit Recording Secretary at UC Davis.
The current UAW elections are crucial for the future of graduate student-workers here at Davis and across the UC system. We have an opportunity to strengthen our political leverage and improve our working environment. As a first year graduate student studying U.S. History, I have encountered the failure of our union’s current leadership to bargain aggressively on our behalf. I have worked in the past as an organizer for various labor issues, and have long been an advocate for increased worker protections, wages, and benefits—all pertinent issues facing UC Davis graduate students. Running for Recording Secretary on the UAW Reform Caucus, Academic Workers for a Democratic Union (AWDU), I am committed to a decentralized union that emphasizes the needs of individual campuses while increasing membership participation to fight against the dangerous cuts to public education that we currently face. AWDU’s fight is to win wage and benefit increases and create a participatory, transparent and democractic union.
Jordan Scavo – Head Steward
I became involved with reforming our union after the current leadership accepted a contract with wage increases that will likely not even keep pace with inflation. Recently, the UC has adopted an aggressive stance toward graduate student workers. Why has our leadership adopted a conciliatory attitude toward the UC in the face of such anti-labor aggression? Especially in the context of other high-profile anti-labor activity across the country, why won’t our leadership fight back? Why won’t they stand aside to allow others to fight back on our behalf?
I want to represent UC Davis graduate student workers so that I can fight for fair wages and benefits. I want to help democratize the union and break up its trenchant leadership. I want to correct our leadership’s failure to communicate unequivocally the integral role that graduate student workers have in the mutually beneficial relationship between graduate students, faculty, and the UC.
You can learn more about our movement to reform our union and empower academic student employees by visiting the website of Academic Workers for a Democratic Union (AWDU) at awdu.org. And to help support our movement, please consider endorsing our slate at awdu.org/endorse.
Jessica Taal – Head Steward
I have been an active member of our union at UC Berkeley, and I recently came to UC Davis as a grad student in the School of Education. As a student working towards a professional degree, I will be a voice for issues and concerns that impact our educational and professional lives. I’m running for Head Steward because I want to be a part of a unionism that is relevant, vital and growing. That’s why I’ve been a part of Academic Workers for a Democratic Union for the past year. AWDU is a caucus within UAW 2865 that is working as a positive force to make the union better and stronger through openness and democracy – rather than relying on failed, top-down tactics that have been killing the labor movement, as the current leadership has. We are about the empowerment of all members of our union, and have worked hard this past year to revive our union, connect with other activists across the UC campuses to save public education in this state, both for and with the current and potential students of the UC system, Cal state and the Community Colleges, but also for and with the workers who enable these schools to exist. We believe an active union with broad participation is a stronger union. Check out our ideas for transforming UAW 2865 into a real social justice union at www.awdu.org. Please vote, and recruit all your friends to vote; you can add your name to our endorsement list at www.awdu.org/endorse.
Eran Zelnik – Head Steward
I am running for a Head Steward position in U.C. Davis to represent academic workers in our fight to fend off attempts by the U.C. administration to encroach upon our benefits, salaries and working conditions. In these uncertain times of unchallenged privatization and vicious campaigns against unions nationwide we need an engaged union leadership. Unfortunately, the current union leadership has not met this challenge with sufficient dedication. Currently, union activity on campus is virtually nonexistent. This is why I joined a reform group called AWDU—Academic Workers for a Democratic Union. Together we intend to change UAW 2856 into the viable and assertive workers union it should be—one that is attentive to its membership and to their needs as workers.
Since my very first days as an undergraduate I have been involve in various social and environmental initiatives, I have worked as a high school teacher for several years, and since arriving at U.C. Davis last academic year I have been active with several groups on campus as well. I believe that these experiences in activism and social engagement will help me represent graduate student workers at U.C. Davis.
A.J. Morgan – Head Steward
My name is A.J. Morgan and I’m running for Head Steward at UC Davis.
Upcoming UAW elections are crucially important for graduate student-workers. We have an opportunity to strengthen our political leverage and better our workplace. As a first year graduate student studying African History, I encountered early the failure of UAW’s current leadership to bargain aggressively on our behalf. Prior to graduate school I worked as a union organizer with Unite Here in Northern California organizing casino and hotel workers. I have long been an advocate for increased worker protections, wages, and benefits—all pertinent issues facing UC Davis graduate. Running for Head Steward on the UAW Reform Caucus, Academic Workers for a Democratic Union (AWDU), I envision a decentralized union that emphasizes and values membership participation. AWDU’s fight is to win wage and benefit increases and create a participatory, democractic union.
You can learn more about our movement to reform our union and empower academic student employees by visiting the website of Academic Workers for a Democratic Union (AWDU) at awdu.org. And to help support our movement, please consider endorsing our slate at awdu.org/endorse.
We are the backbone of this institution and it is time our work is compensated and recognized!
Andrew Higgins – Head Steward
I’m a second year graduate student studying twentieth century American history. As such, I know the important role that organized labor has played in making the United States a more just and equal society. I am running on the AWDU (Academic Workers for a Democratic Union) slate because I believe that direct democracy and a union more cognizant of and involved in our campus-specific issues will help to better our experiences as graduate students. Thus far at Davis I have been highly disappointed by the ossified union bureaucracy which has proven unresponsive to the graduate students it supposedly represents. A vote for me, and for the rest of the AWDU slate, is a vote for union representatives who understand our situation on the ground and are willing to fight for the changes that will make UC Davis a better place to work and study. You can learn more about our movement to reform our union and empower academic student employees by visiting the website of Academic Workers for a Democratic Union (AWDU) at awdu.org. And to help support our movement, please consider endorsing our slate at awdu.org/endorse.
Tim Gutierrez – Head Steward
I am a graduate student in Sociology. For the past seven years, I have fought for student and worker rights at the UC and I have seen the awesome potential of our union. In recent years, I served UC Davis for nearly three years as Campus Recording Secretary. Since then, I have remained involved in the struggle against devastating budget cuts and fee hikes.
We have the resources and the leverage to be a powerful force in defense of public education and workers rights. But the only way we can take advantage of our collective strength is by putting the union in the hands of its members. In the past, many active members have been disenchanted by an entrenched leadership that has discouraged autonomous member participation. I have been reinvigorated by all the new voices of members who demand to be heard. If we want to fight for public education and win new contracts with better benefits and working conditions, we need our union to be a truly democratic organization that is able to empower members and inspire unprecedented levels of participation.
Along with other like-minded and committed union activists, I am running as a part of Academic Workers for a Democratic Union (AWDU). We envision a decentralized union that emphasizes and values member participation, openness, and transparency. You can learn more about our by visiting awdu.org. Please consider endorsing our slate at awdu.org/endorse.
