Jaweed Kaleem, Paloma Esquivel
Fri, May 17, 2024
Academic workers at UC Irvine walk the picket line during a strike on Nov. 15, 2022.
As the 48,000-member UC academic workers union announced a Monday strike at UC Santa Cruz over alleged free speech violations during pro-Palestinian protests, the University of California on Friday filed a labor complaint to stop what they allege is an illegal action, heightening tensions roiling the university system.
The union's decision to strike on the 19,764-student campus — where nearly 2,000 students are in graduate school — could deal a blow to operations at a critical time during the final weeks of the spring quarter.
The targeting of UC Santa Cruz came after 79% of voting members across the state this week authorized the union leadership to call for "rolling" strikes — not over wages and benefits, but for alleged unfair labor practices against union members who supported pro-Palestinian student protests demanding that universities divest from Israel and weapons companies.
The union represents graduate student teaching assistants, researchers and other academic workers at University of California’s 10 campuses.
The Santa Cruz strike would be the first of potentially several work stoppages that the union intends to launch one by one across campuses based on how receptive administrations are to pro-Palestinian activists' demands.
The strike threats prompted UC leaders to file their own state unfair labor practice charge against the union on Friday that called on student workers to "cease and desist" the pending walkout.
"This strike directly violates the [collective bargaining agreement's] no strike clauses, and has no relation to UAW members’ employment with the university. Instead, as the UAW and its members’ communications make clear, UAW strikes to support protest activity surrounding the conflict in the Middle East," UC said in their filing with the state's labor board.
UC officials allege the strike is illegal because of a no-strike clause in the union's contract, ratified in late 2022, that won significant pay increases and benefit improvements for union members. The union argues that the strike is within its legal rights because it's connected to an unfair labor practice charge workers filed in early May with the state's labor board.
"Particularly in today’s climate, if UAW [and other unions] can disregard no-strike clauses, the University — and every other public agency in California — would face constant strikes advancing political and/or social viewpoints," the university's filing said.
The union chose to strike at a smaller UC campus where tensions have been lower and police have not been called in to make arrests or sweeps. But the campus is not a stranger to worker protests. In 2020, the university fired dozens of grad students from their teaching assistant positions after strikes there. At least 17 arrests were made during a related student-led demonstration.
This spring, UCLA, UC Irvine and UC Berkeley have been particularly volatile flashpoints of pro-Palestinian protests. A violent mob attack on a UCLA pro-Palestinian encampment last month has led to multiple investigations into how the university handled the melee and the delayed police response to it.
For two weeks, students at UC Santa Cruz, including unionized graduate students, have maintained a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus in support of divestment from Israel. The strike comes as protesters and the university administration have indicated that they've reached a standstill. Protest leaders said on Thursday that they were "under imminent threat of police sweep" after they said the university gave them formal notice to "cease all camping activities on university property."
No length of time was given for the strike, which the union announced with a promotional video on the social media site X, but a UC Santa Cruz union member said it could last through June 30.
Speaking before the strike decision, Rafael Jaime, United Auto Workers Local 4811 co-president and a doctoral candidate in UCLA’s English department, said a strike would mean "all academic work would cease, including research, teaching and grading."
Read more: 'Maximize chaos.' UC academic workers authorize strike, alleging rights violated during protests
Student workers will receive $500 weekly in strike pay, or about 33% less than the average teaching assistant makes for a 20-hour work week, he said.
Jess Fournier, a union representative at UC Santa Cruz, said that while the alleged unfair labor practices did not take place on their campus, workers there view the university’s response as a threat to workers across the UC system.
"If members of our academic community are being maced and beaten for peacefully protesting, our ability to collectively organize as workers, and our fundamental right to have free speech and protest on any issue is threatened."
Fournier said academic workers at the university would continue their walkouts over the coming months until the university resolves the alleged unfair labor practices.
"If they refuse to do so, more campuses may be called as necessary. Workers on every campus are extremely fired up about this,” they said. "This is a statewide issue. Even though we are the ones leading the charge. It seems very likely other campuses will follow unless and until these unfair labor practices are resolved.”
Experts say the union is taking a novel approach in its strike because it is not focused on contract matters but instead on free speech.
The union complaint focuses on the arrests of pro-Palestinian graduate student protesters at UCLA and suspensions and other discipline at UC San Diego and UC Irvine. It accuses the universities of retaliating against student workers and unlawfully changing workplace policies to suppress pro-Palestinian speech.
In a letter sent to graduate student workers on Wednesday, UC officials warned students against striking.
"Participating in the strike does not change, excuse, or modify, an employee’s normal work duties or expectations. And, unlike a protected strike, you could be subject to corrective action for failing to perform your duties,” the unsigned letter from the UC office of the president said.
Read more: UCLA struggles to recover after 200 arrested, pro-Palestinian camp torn down
The letter also defended universities using riot police to break up protests.
“We have a duty to ensure that all speech can be heard, that our entire community is safe, and that our property and common areas are accessible for all. These duties require the UC to take action when protests endanger the community and violate our shared norms regarding safe behavior and the use of public spaces,” it said.
The strike vote comes as campuses throughout the UC system have experienced tensions and protests over the Israel-Hamas war, including a violent mob attack on a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA and the arrest of 47 protesters at UC Irvine on Wednesday.
UC Riverside and UC Berkeley have reached agreements with protesters to end encampments and explore divestment from weapons companies. Leaders at those universities have rejected calls to target Israel specifically or for academic boycotts against exchange programs and partnerships with Israeli universities, as some protesters have demanded.
While some Jewish students have supported pro-Palestinian encampments, national Jewish groups have criticized the divestment movement. They say it is antisemitic because it aims to delegitimize the only predominantly Jewish nation.
In Santa Cruz, emails and calls from The Times to several Jewish student organizations seeking comment on the strike and pro-Palestinian protests were not immediately returned.
"We are aware of the challenges happening on campus and right now are focusing all of our attention on supporting students and working with campus administration," said an auto-reply from Becka Ross, the executive director of the Santa Cruz Hillel.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Graduate workers in California to strike over treatment of Gaza protesters
Michael Sainato
Fri, 17 May 2024
UCLA faculty and staff members in Los Angeles on 9 May.Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP
California’s huge university system is facing widespread disruption after workers voted to hold a series of strikes in protest of its treatment of Gaza protesters.
The University of California (UC) has more than 280,000 students and 227,000 faculty and staff on campuses across the state.
Members of the United Auto Workers (UAW), which represents 48,000 graduate workers throughout the system, voted to authorize a strike on Wednesday. On Friday, the union called on graduate workers at UC Santa Cruz to walk off the job on Monday. About 2,000 graduate workers are represented by the union at UC Santa Cruz.
The vote was called in response to charges of unfair labor practices filed against universities over their response to Gaza protests where union members were attacked by counter-protesters and police.
The UAW called for a ceasefire in Gaza in December. Best known for its representation of auto workers, the UAW is planning to engage in a series of “stand up” strikes where the union’s executive board will call on campuses to strike on a rolling basis. The tactic was used in the UAW’s successful strike against the big three US automakers late last year.
“At the heart of this is our right to free speech and peaceful protest,” said Rafael Jaime, a graduate worker in the English department at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and president of UAW 4811.
“If members of the academic community are maced and beaten down for peacefully demonstrating on this issue, our ability to speak up on all issues is threatened. As days pass with no remedies for UC’s unfair labor practices, academic workers on more and more campuses are preparing to stand up to demand that our rights to free speech, protest and collective action be respected.”
Graduate workers at UCLA, the University of Southern California, the University of California at San Diego, Brown University and Harvard University have filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board over how their university administrations unilaterally changed policies and responded to Gaza protests.
According to the union, UC Riverside and UC Berkeley have been negotiating with protesters over their demands for transparency on university investments and divestment from Israel and weapons contractors and manufacturers contributing to the war in Gaza. The union is also demanding amnesty for all academic workers who face disciplinary action and arrest for participating in the protests.
The University of California administration has claimed the strikes are illegal despite the union classifying them as unfair labor practice strikes that are protected activity.
“The University strongly disagrees with the UAW that any exception to this general rule applies and strongly believes that the action is an unlawful strike,” stated the administration in response to the strike vote. “In response to an unlawful strike, the University will take action with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to assert that the strike is unlawful.”
University of California Workers Authorize Union to Call for Strike Over Protest Crackdowns
Jonathan Wolfe
Thu, 16 May 2024
Counterprotesters fight with pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the pro-Palestinian protest encampment on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, on April 30, 2024. (Mark Abramson/The New York Times)
LOS ANGELES — Unions are known for fighting for higher pay and workplace conditions. But academic workers in the University of California system authorized their union Wednesday to call for a strike over something else entirely: free speech.
The union, UAW 4811, represents about 48,000 graduate students and other academic workers at 10 University of California system campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Its members, incensed over the university system’s handling of campus protests, pushed their union to address grievances extending beyond the bread-and-butter issues of collective bargaining to concerns over protesting and speaking out in their workplace.
The strike authorization vote, which passed with 79% support, comes two weeks after dozens of counterprotesters attacked a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA for several hours without police intervention and without arrests. Officers in riot gear tore down the encampment the next day and arrested more than 200 people.
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The vote does not guarantee a strike but rather gives the executive board of the local union, which is part of the United Auto Workers, the ability to call a strike at any time. Eight of the 10 University of California campuses still have a month of instruction left before breaking for summer.
The union said it had called the vote because the University of California unilaterally and unlawfully changed policies regarding free speech, discriminated against pro-Palestinian speech and created an unsafe work environment by allowing attacks on protesters, among other grievances.
“At the heart of this is our right to free speech and peaceful protest,” Rafael Jaime, the president of UAW 4811, said in a statement after the vote. “If members of the academic community are maced and beaten down for peacefully demonstrating on this issue, our ability to speak up on all issues is threatened.”
A spokesperson for the University of California president’s office said in a statement that a strike would set “a dangerous precedent that would introduce nonlabor issues into labor agreements.”
“To be clear, the UC understands and embraces its role as a forum for free speech, lawful protests and public debate,” said the spokesperson, Heather Hansen. “However, given that role, these nonlabor-related disputes cannot prevent it from fulfilling its academic mission.”
There are still several active encampments at University of California campuses, including UC Merced, UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis. Protesters at UC Berkeley began dismantling their encampment Tuesday after reaching an agreement with university officials.
In a letter to the protesters Tuesday, Berkeley’s chancellor, Carol Christ, said that the university would begin discussions around divestment from certain companies and that she planned to publicly support “efforts to secure an immediate and permanent cease-fire” by the end of the month. But she said that divestment from companies that do business with, or in, Israel was not within her authority.
After packing up their tents, some of the Berkeley protesters traveled on Wednesday to UC Merced to attend a meeting held by the University of California governing board. More than 100 people signed up to give public comment, and nearly all of those who spoke about the protests criticized the handling of them by university administrations.
The strike authorization vote enables what is known as a “stand-up” strike, a tactic that was first employed by the United Auto Workers last year during its contract negotiations with General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis. Rather than calling on all members to strike at once, the move allows the local union’s executive board to focus strikes on certain campuses or among certain groups of workers, to gain leverage.
Jaime said before the vote that the union would use the tactic to “reward campuses that make progress” and possibly call strikes at those that don’t. He added that the union would announce the strikes “only at the last minute, in order to maximize chaos and confusion for the employer.”
The union said Wednesday that its executive board would announce later this week if it was calling for strikes.
Tobias Higbie, a professor of history and labor studies at UCLA, said that while striking for free speech was unusual, it wasn’t unheard of. The academic workers’ union is also largely made up of young people, who have been far more receptive to organized labor than young people in even the recent past, he said.
“It points to how generational change is not only impacting workplaces, but it’s going to impact unions,” Higbie said. “Young members are going to make more and more demands like this on their unions as we go forward over the next couple of years, and so I think it’s probably a harbinger of things to come.”
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