A rolling strike by unionized academic workers upset about the University of California's response to pro-Palestinian protests at various campuses spread to two more campuses Monday and will reach UC Irvine beginning Wednesday.
Workers represented by United Auto Workers Local 4811 hit the picket lines Monday morning at UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara, with UC Irvine workers set to join the lines Wednesday.
The wave of strikes initially began at UC Santa Cruz, then spread last week to UCLA and UC Davis.
The union said violence, arrests, and student conduct charges triggered by the administration amount to unfair labor practices.
“This is a way for the university to try to discipline people outside of their contractual rights. The university is just trying to suppress protests," said Adu Vengal, a UC San Diego graduate student researcher and spokesperson at the Monday rally.
The strike on the La Jolla campus comes during the last week of instruction. Finals start on Saturday and graduation is June 15. The timing is an intentional strategy.
"Part of striking for teaching assistants includes things like grade withholding as finals come up for students. That is something we are thinking about," said Danea Palmer, a UCSD graduate student worker and member of the UAW Local 4811 state executive board.
According to the union, UAW represents 5,000 workers at UC Irvine and 8,000 at UC San Diego, along with 3,000 at UC Santa Barbara. The union has 31,500 members at all six of the universities now targeted by the strikes. The union represents teaching assistants, readers, tutors, student researchers, and academic researchers.
"For the last month, UC has used and condoned violence against workers and students peacefully protesting on campus for peace and freedom in Palestine," Rafael Jaime, president of UAW Local 4811, said last week in a statement.
"Rather than put their energies into resolution, UC is attempting to halt the strike through legal procedures. They have not been successful, and this strike will roll on. We are united in our demand that UC addresses these serious ULPs (unfair labor practices), beginning with dropping all criminal and conduct charges that have been thrown at our members because they spoke out against injustice."
"For the last month, UC has used and condoned violence against workers and students peacefully protesting on campus for peace and freedom in Palestine."Rafael Jaime, president of UAW Local 4811
UAW Local 4811 is asking the UC schools to give amnesty to all academic employees and students who faced arrest or disciplinary actions for protesting at campuses. The union also wants the students to have guarantees of freedom of speech and political expression on campus and is asking for researchers to be able to opt out of funding sources tied to the Israeli Defense Forces.
The UC system has blasted the union's allegations and filed unfair labor practice complaints of its own, saying the union's labor contract has a no-strike provision and that the union's demands are outside the scope of union labor issues. The university has also rejected calls for amnesty.
"We are disheartened that UAW continues publicly escalating its unlawful strike in violation of its contracts' no-strike clause and encouraging its members to disrupt and harm the ability of our students to navigate finals and other critical year-end activities successfully," UC officials said in a statement Friday.
"UAW's goal to 'maximize chaos and confusion' has come to fruition, creating substantial and irreparable impacts on campuses and impacting our students at a crucial time of their education. We are hopeful PERB (Public Employment Relations Board) will intervene and ask the court to end this precedent-setting, unlawful action."
Monday afternoon, the California Public Employment Relations Board denied for the second time the UC's request for an injunction to stop all campus strikes, allowing them to continue.
Last month, PERB declined the university's first request for an injunction that would have blocked the strike, but UC officials said the board issued a complaint against the union saying the walkout is "contrary to the no-strike clauses in their collective bargaining agreements."
Union officials said PERB has also called for both sides to meet and discuss the issues, forcing the university to the table rather than just seeking an injunction.
On Monday, San Diego Jewish groups released a statement criticizing the strike, saying it "is tied to the antisemitic Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement, the goal of which is to demonize Israel, undermine its existence and ultimately seek the elimination of the only Jewish state."
The statement issued by American Jewish Committee, Hillel San Diego, the Lawrence Family JCC and the Jewish Federation of San Diego also said Jewish students on campus "have felt under siege because of ongoing campus demonstrations. When the protestors claim on social media ‘Our comrades in Gaza call upon us, directly, to escalate our struggle…,’ they make UCSD an unsafe and unwelcoming environment for Jewish faculty and students."
