What can we do about this?

As we've alluded to briefly throughout this document, this problem isn't isolated to the EECS department. Many different departments across Berkeley have been facing similar issues with their departments trying to bend the rules over how much students should be paid.

Additionally, this is to say nothing of graduate students in other departments who don't receive the same guaranteed step level appointments that students in EECS receive. Some students have to TA in order to receive fee remission and pay. And many students are paid at the lower step levels. I would encourage you to go back up to the earlier interactives and examine pay for folks at the lower step levels. Does this seem like fair compensation for their labor to you?

The hope is that this document makes you somewhat angry about all this, but also that this document gives you hope that a better future is possible. As we've mentioned before, students have previously gotten together to rally around improving working conditions, to great effect. The wage gains we've won recently wouldn't have happened if grad students hadn't gone out to demand what they deserve! And when that does happen, change follows!

So what can you do?

Talk to your colleagues about pay

Particularly in the U.S., there's a taboo about speaking openly about how much you're making. Financial information is treated as a secret that shouldn't be discussed openly. But in reality, this lack of transparency serves nobody but the people trying to pay you less!

Of course, you're the expert on how hostile or friendly your immediate workspace—your office, your lab, and your department adminstration—is regarding discussions of pay. And this is in no way meant to invalidate concerns of retaliation or reprisal; your safety, security, and stability come first, particularly in the current political climate we're living in. But if you can and are comfortable, talk to your other folks about what y'all are getting paid! You could even send them this document 🙆‍♀️

Knowledge is power, and having people know what's going on is the first step to broader action.

Consider joining the union

In the past, as we've alluded to in the document, the union has been instrumental in fighting for the gains we currently have. A union is an organized collective of workers (in this case, grad students) empowered to bargain and negotiate with the university for better working conditions. On occasion, unions can call for strikes, asking its members to stop working to force the other party (in this case, the university) to agree to better working conditions for its employees.

In the present, UAW 4811 (the UC grad students' union) was the organization who won us our wage increases in 2023, and they are currently in arbitrartion with the university over the above departmental issues over pay we've mentioned. Becoming a union member can be a great way to increase the bargaining power of graduate students overall (particularly in EECS).