>Nobody is forcing them to go to graduate school in California and accept this job. This isn't something that they were coerced into. What is the significance

>Nobody is forcing them to go to graduate school in California and accept this job. This isn't something that they were coerced into. What is the significance of this point when literally no one is forced or coerced except for slaves? By this token absolutely no one should be striking for higher wages - they should all go work somewhere else. Oh wait... >They do perform a service, sometimes teaching classes, sometimes grading papers, sometimes assisting with office hours. They get paid $2400/mo, putting them above median salary for full-time TAs. Medían where? The entire United States? California? Santa Cruz? And exactly why is that relevant anyway? It's quite possible that the median wage isn't enough! And this would be part of the process for raising it. >The fact of the matter is that research is still a demand driven field. This is why you'll see stipends and grants to assist students in higher demand fields, like computer science. When you look at the average salary of a tenured UC professor (the kind that takes on grad students) and the average salary of appointed administrators (deans, provosts, etc) it's very hard to believe that the issue is lack of money and not allocation. I also have no idea what cs/stem has to do with this. Most stem PhDs don't get more money either (most do not have fellowships nor their own grants).