UCI strike continues

Deirdre Newman

Andrew Tonkovich’s vocal cords are strained and he is exhausted.

But the president of Local 2226 of the University Council-American

Federation of Teachers said he is exhilarated at the results of the

second and final day of a lecturer’s strike at UCI.

Lecturers have been working throughout the UC system for more than

two years without a contract. The goal of the strike, which also took

place at other UC campuses, was to bring charges of unfair labor

practices by the UC system to public attention.

The lecturers claim to be treated like second-class citizens

because they do not have the same job protections or salary range as

tenured professors.

While the immediate result of the two-day strike was the

cancellation of 135 classes altogether, Tonkovich said he hopes it

will give the lecturers leverage in their negotiations with the

University of California.

The weighted average lecturer salaries are $43,081 a year for the first six years and $51,183 a year after that, according to the UC

Office of the President’s Web site.

Someone at the lowest position on the tenured track -- assistant

professor -- makes an average of $60,000 a year, UCI spokeswoman Lori

Brandt said. Lecturers mainly teach lower-division undergraduate

courses at UCI, Brandt said.

The two-day strike culminated with a rally Tuesday that attracted

between 250 and 300 people, said Tonkovich, a lecturer in UCI’s

English and Comparative Literature Department. Irvine Mayor Larry

Agran spoke at the rally in support of the lecturers.

About 100 students showed up to support the lecturers Tuesday,

Tonkovich said, in defiance of a scathing campus newspaper editorial

that lambasted the lecturers, calling them “selfish” and “bad

teachers.”

“Clearly the support from most students would not support that,”

Tonkovich said.

The two sides will meet again in negotiations Oct. 21 and 22.