UC Grad Students Fired For Demanding Living Wage

Sonali Kolhatkar speaks with Zia Puig, a Fired PhD Student from UC Santa Cruz in Feminist Studies with Designated Emphases in Astronomy and Astrophysics & Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. She worked as the Graduate Coordinator at The Disability Resource Center.

Mass protests led by graduate students on strike at the University of California in Santa Cruz have dominated their campus.

The grad students are demanding that the University pay them a living wage/Cost of Living Adjustments or COLA. Graduate assistants first went on a “grade strike” in December which turned into a full-blown strike this year.

UC Santa Cruz then fired about 80 students involved in the strike, further escalating the situation.

The school campus has been forced to shut down and cancel classes, police have been brought in, and faculty and undergraduate students have been striking in solidarity.

Rising Up with Sonali is a radio and television show that brings progressive news coverage rooted in gender and racial justice to a wide audience.

Rising Up With Sonali was built on the foundation of Sonali Kolhatkar's earlier show, Uprising, which became the longest-running drive-time radio show on KPFK in Los Angeles hosted by a woman.

RUS airs on Free Speech TV every weekday.

Missed an episode? Check out Rising Up on FSTV VOD anytime or visit the show page for the latest clips.

#FreeSpeechTV is one of the last standing national, independent news networks committed to advancing progressive social change.

#FSTV is available on Dish, DirectTV , AppleTV, Roku, Sling and online at freespeech.org.