Activists Promise an Iowa Immigrant Worker Strike

https://link.iowastartingline.com/view/650843af904f88308d52ecb5kqigp.8he/abc1d841

The newsletter for the Iowa worker.

It's Wednesday, Mar. 27, 2024.

Today at noon, unionized graduate students at the University of Iowa are interrupting the university's "One Day for Iowa" fundraising push at the Pentacrest.

The reason? Ending the fees they call "paying to work." (petition at that link)

"For too long, [teaching assistants] and [resident assistants] have footed the bill for basic services that we are entitled to as workers," the petition from the UE Local 896 COGS union reads. "These fees amount to thousands of dollars throughout a graduate school education, keeping workers in poverty and debt. This is unacceptable."

Graduate students protest after delivering a petition to university leadership on March 5, 2024.

Photo courtesy UE Local 896 COGS

After graduate student workers presented their petition to university leadership, they received a response last week, saying "financial and budgetary constraints" prevented the university from dropping or lowering fees charged to students.

FULL story at link above.