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Heeba Hartit is a PhD student in the History department at UC Riverside with a focus on Arabic Literature and 19th Century German philosophy. She is also the Academic Student Employee Unit Chair with UAW Local 4811. She works as a TA for the University, and attributes this experience as her introduction to organizing.
One of Heeba’s primary focuses is North Africa, specifically prison writings from Morocco’s “Years of Lead.” Many of those imprisoned were union leaders, and this does not go unnoticed in her work. Heeba intentionally chose UC Riverside due to the fact that graduate students are unionized, in addition to its proximity to where she calls home. She is going into her 6th year as a PhD student at UC Riverside, and in these past years has seen a campus rise of academic worker organizing.
In 2022, there was a strike after the expiration of contracts for graduate and postdoc student workers. Before signing their new contracts, organizers decided this was the perfect time to push forward demands they’ve had for years. In doing so, the union faced internal issues,
“One of the biggest challenges is actually trying to get academic workers to see themselves as workers…an auto plant worker knows that they are a worker. There’s no question about it…once you get into academia, I think it starts to become…‘This is an apprenticeship for me and I’m okay’…”
The strikes in 2022 changed how student workers valued their labor. The nature of student workers inherently means that union members change drastically each year as students graduate. For this cohort, however, the strike allowed students to see each other, literally. Families and individuals stood side by side fighting for their ability to pay for groceries, bills, and rent. These issues were brought to the forefront for many students protesting,
“Before my very eyes, people were finally getting to come together and realize that they’re not alone in the fact that they cannot pay their bills or pay rent…and aren’t able to pay for their livelihood…their day to day. Academia can be such an isolating process, but it shouldn’t be….To this day, there are people who were on the picket at UC Riverside during the 2022 strike who are still very involved and were very much moved by the fact that they had the opportunity to get face time with their fellow co-workers, which they wouldn’t have before.”
Heeba noted the amount of cooperation and friendship that grew between different departments, and through the strike she saw a great growth of solidarity. This solidarity was not just between 4811, but also from UAW broadly, as well as community members and even academic workers’ own students.
