The growing strike may complicate matters for the more than 169,000 undergraduate students at six campuses as they wrap up instruction and take final exams.

Starting today, as many as 48,000 University of California academic workers — including teaching assistants, postdoctoral scholars and graduate student researchers — are set to strike at all 10 UC campuses, a move that could cause some classes, grading and lab work to grind to a halt just weeks ahead of final exams.