University of California workers in numbers as huge as 48,000 have declared strike, demanding better pay and benefits.

Employees who are on strike majorly make up a huge section of the teaching staff and researchers of the university. Additionally, they have demanded a $54,000 minimum pay for student researchers, US media reported.

According to a report carried out by HRD US, UC has proposed 6%, 3%, 3%, 3% wage increases over the next four  years. “In a year of 8.5% inflation, this amounts to an effective wage cut, exacerbating SRs’ rent burden,” according to the union.

“We are overworked and underpaid, and we are fed up,” said Jamie Mondello, a 27-year-old psychology graduate student worker at UCLA and member of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 2,865 and Student Researchers United, according to reports. “Our proposals bring everyone into a livable wage. We’re, as a whole, just asking to be treated with dignity. We really keep the UC running.”

The workers are also demanding benefits such as child care subsidies, healthcare benefits for the dependents, longer family leave, public transit passes and lower tuition costs for international scholars.

Talking to the media, a university spokesperson Ryan King said that the university’s current proposal “would set the standard for graduate academic employee support among public research universities.”