Waiting for COLA Strike Meme

UAW members and supporters shared thousands of online images, charts, and ideas including this meme expressing disappointment that the contract failed to include a cost of living adjustment (COLA).

Communication is crucial during any strike campaign, as announcements, information, and instructions must be shared as quickly as possible. But how do you communicate with 48,000 workers during a strike across multiple campuses who access information in a variety of ways? During the UAW Fair UC Now 2022 Campaign, workers used all kinds of information channels to get the word out to their co-workers, including private servers like Signal, WhatsApp, and Discord, as well as public-facing social media on Instagram and Twitter (now, X). Memes became a primary medium for summarizing key bargaining points, major events, and airing criticisms across all platforms. Although ephemeral by nature, these visual relics often carried deeper meaning for their creators.  As the contributor of this meme from UC Merced described, for union members, memes became “an outlet for their frustration,” many opting for sarcasm and humor as they became disillusioned with the bargaining process. 

A large collection of memes like these are part of the UAW Fair UC Now 2022 Campaign Collection, part of the Wayne State Reuther Library.

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Strike Kitchen Menu

This lunch menu from the Strike Kitchen set up in front of UCLA’s Bunche Hall is part of the UAW Fair UC Now 2022 Campaign Collection, Wayne State Reuther Library.

How do you keep a picket line running all day? During the UAW strike at the University of California in 2022, academic workers developed their own creative forms of mutual aid to keep their colleagues fed every day. Committees formed across all UC campuses to distribute food, using donations from supportive allies and local restaurants or crowdsourced funds towards the purchase and cooking of meals. This menu comes from the “Kitchen Committee” at UCLA, which served meals to the picket line stationed outside of Bunche Hall. As members of the Kitchen Committee described, not only did they provide daily lunches for graduate student workers throughout the strike campaign, in the process, they constructed new systems of collective care and support rooted in solidarity.

This menu– as well as many others from the Bunche Hall picket line– are part of the UAW Fair UC Now 2022 Campaign Collection, part of the Wayne State Reuther Library.

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Kayak Picket Line

Striking academic workers from UC Irvine picket the seaside home of a major UC donor.

The UAW Fair UC Now 2022 Campaign began Nov. 14, when striking graduate workers formed picket lines on campuses across the state that continued for at least four weeks. But after classes concluded for the year in December, striking workers had to rethink their strategies. How can you escalate a work stoppage when that worksite is effectively closed? The members of UAW decided to focus their demonstrations on new targets. Working together, they identified new picketing locations across the state, including the workplaces and residences of the UC Regents and other key stakeholders. Many of these off-campus demonstrations also took novel forms, including the kayak action pictured here, when students from UC Irvine paddled their picket line towards an off-shore island where the residence of a major UC donor was located.

Photos from this picket line, as well as many others, are part of the UAW Fair UC Now 2022 Campaign Collection, part of the Wayne State Reuther Library.

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