Toby Higbie Profile picture
UCLA History & Labor Studies. Posting personal opinions--not UC policy--about labor & migration history, worker organizing, higher ed policy. He/him.
Dec 8, 2022 10 tweets 4 min read
4 weeks into the biggest strike in US higher education history, the UAW is clearly winning the PR battle. A 🧵 on campaign communications, the changing media landscape, and the next phases of #UAWonStrike /1
latimes.com/california/sto… Reports abt #UAWonStrike at UC's 10 campuses have been notably sympathetic. UC tried first to portray union demands as greedy, then to reassure public they had been negotiating in good faith all along--the union is being unreasonable and mean, we need a mediator! Didn't work /2
Nov 14, 2022 8 tweets 3 min read
Monday morning at 8 am, 48,000 UC academic workers hit the picket lines in the largest higher education strike in US history. The strike has been a long time in the making and has had many authors.

A 🧵 on austerity budgets ... Back in 2004, the state higher education leaders struck a deal with then governor Arnold Schwartzenegger that promised sustained levels of state funding (naturally, lower levels) in return for more reliance on tuition payments and private fundraising by the university