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VOLUME 145, ISSUE 10 | THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2022

UAW 5810 REACHES A TENTATIVE AGREEMENT WITH UC

The 48,0000 academic workers will continue to strike until an agreement is reached for academic student employees and student researchers BY RACHEL GAUER campus@theaggie.org

Academic workers’ strike marches through UC Davis campus. (David Kwon / Courtesy) On Nov. 28 at 11:31 p.m., the University of California (UC) and UAW 5810, the union representing two of the striking units, academic researchers and postdoctoral students, reached a tentative agreement on contracts for the two parties. The two remaining units, academic student employees and student researchers, still must come to an agreement with the UC in order for the

strike to cease. Although the members of UAW 5810 have tentatively accepted the UC’s proposal, they have chosen to continue to strike in solidarity with the remaining units until they both reach agreements as well. A press release from UAW 5810 on the morning of Nov. 29 outlined the coming steps needed to reach a final agreement for all units. “We expect [the UC] will start

making substantial offers to Academic Student Employees and Student Researchers,” the release read. Additionally, the membership of UAW 5810 must still vote to ratify the agreement, which will remain tentative until its ratification. If the proposal is ratified, academic researchers will receive, on average, a 29% salary increase over the course of their contracts, and postdoctoral

students will receive, on average, a 20-23% salary increase by Oct. 2023. Once ratified, the new contracts will be effective through Sept. 30, 2027. Additionally, the proposal offers both academic workers and postdoctoral students eight weeks of parental and family leave at 100% pay, as well as more protections for workers with disabilities and free transit passes for transportation.

In the press release, Neil Sweeney, the president of UAW 5810, urged the UC to propose an agreement to the two remaining units on strike. “It is now time for UC to make serious proposals to Academic Student Employees and Student Researchers and to reach fair agreements that recognize the contributions these workers make,” Sweeney wrote in the statement.

KDVS IS BACK ON AIR INTERNATIONAL HOUSE HOLDS EVENT AFTER SEVEN-WEEK HIATUS DISCUSSING LOCAL GUN VIOLENCE AND The radio station spent several weeks off of the air due to a broadcast tower malfunction BY RACHEL GAUER campus@theaggie.org

HATEFUL IDEOLOGIES

Davis Phoenix Coalition, Moms Demand Action, Davis Police Department and the university organized the talk BY LA RISSA VASQUEZ city@theaggie.org

KDVS is the student-run radio station at UC Davis, which is now back on-theair after technological difficulties forced a temporary hiatus. (Cate Hatcher / Courtesy) As of Nov. 7, UC Davis’ studentrun radio station KDVS is back on air after a seven-week hiatus caused by technical difficulties. The station was forced to pause its FM radio broadcast during this time due to a broadcast tower malfunction, but its online stream continued broadcasting throughout the entirety of the maintenance period. The outage lasted from midSeptember through early November, according to fourth-year sociology

READ MORE UC DAVIS RALLIES BACK TO DEFEAT SACRAMENTO STATE

Elijah Pepper and Christian Anigwe combine for 46 points in an impressive performance. SEE PAGE 12

major and KDVS General Manager Cate Hatcher. The malfunction itself was caused by an outage of one of the tower’s RF power modules, which Hatcher explained is a core function that amplifies the frequency of the radio broadcast. Hatcher went on to say that the process of repair was prolonged by the long shipping time to and from the part’s repair office in Maine, as well as by an unpaid invoice to the company. “The invoice was from March of this year, and it sat unpaid for six or seven months,” Hatcher said. “It’s not something that I [could] take care of on my end. We had to wait an extra week because the company wouldn’t accept a new job from us until we settled the old payment.” Though KDVS continued to stream online, the FM broadcast is the primary way listeners tune into the station, according to Hatcher — which is why the radio outage was so significant to the group’s operations. “Usually for shows, we always get callers and people letting us know about our show and obviously we were not getting as many callers,” Hatcher said. “It was kind of like just putting music out into a void.” Jacob Ikuna, a fourth-year sociology and cinema and digital media double major, serves as the assistant general manager at KDVS. Ikuna explained that some listeners solely have access to the FM broadcast and were unable to listen during the hiatus. KDVSRETURN on 8

On Nov. 16, the International House, which has been a space for cultural learning for more than 40 years, hosted an event at which Dr. Garen Wintemute, professor of emergency medicine and director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at UC Davis, educated the Davis community about gun violence and hateful ideologies. Gloria Partida, a Davis City Council member and chair of the Davis Phoenix Coalition, organized the event with the UC Davis Director of Campus and Community Engagement Vickie Gomez. Partida spoke, opening the event. “Our organization does a lot of work around diversity and inclusion, and we do a lot of awareness raising for vulnerable populations,” Partida said. “And vulnerable populations are often the targets of violence and so our mission is to prevent hate-motivated violence, [and] in promoting this event, to have this conversation before rather than after.” Gomez said that Davis isn’t exempt from violence and hateful ideologies. “Understanding that because Davis is a college town that it’s not immune to extreme thinking [and] extreme views, and we are grateful that it hasn’t exploded into violence and gun violence,” Gomez said. “But I think it’s really critical for people to understand what that is and what that

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looks like.” The Davis City Council took a step towards proactive gun safety this year by enacting the Safe Storage of Firearms Ordinance on Aug. 30. Davis Police Department (PD) Lieutenant John Evans spoke about the gun safety ordinance at the event and gave out gun locks, provided to the Davis PD by Project Child Safe. “If there is a firearm of any type left unattended or stored in a home or a vehicle, it has to be locked up in a container, like a safe or a strong box of some sort, or it has to have a fire safety device on it like a gun lock or trigger lock with the idea being that the firearm cannot be accessed by a child or someone else who is not allowed access to firearms for some reason,” Evans said. “We have partnered with Moms Demand Action and we’ve been to several different community events to educate people about the ordinance, pass out gunlocks and basically promote firearm safety.” Evans encouraged people to visit the Davis City Police Department on Mondays through Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to pick up free gun locks. Davis PD organizes public awareness campaigns with Moms Demand Action, a national grassroots movement advocating for gun safety and reform at all legislative levels. Emily Ault, California state legislative

co-lead for Moms Demand Action from the Yolo County Chapter, talked about the current unrest in the Davis community. “As you probably know, we are not immune to extremism in Davis and Yolo County,” Ault said. “We have had members of Proud Boys show up to Davis [Board of Education] meetings and harass parents and students. We have had [Proud Boy] members show up at events on the UC Davis campus and cause havoc. There is nothing more deadly than hate armed with a gun.” During his presentation, Dr. Wintemute described the deadly dynamic of hate equipped with firearms. “Here is the research question we’re all set up to answer,” Wintemute said. “What happens when you take a society that is fearful of its future, mistrustful of its institutions, polarized, angry at itself and you throw a bunch of guns in the mix?” Partida said that the Davis community can fight gun violence and extremism by staying involved. We can donate to programs that provide intervention and lobby for gun policies,” Partida said. “We can support youth and programs that target creating safe inclusive spaces. I hope people can see that the root of all violence starts in intolerance.”