The UC system is suing a union leading strikes around California. This is why

The University of California is suing a union leading strikes at UC campuses across the state, calling the protests over alleged violations of workers’ rights illegal because they violate a “no-strike” clause in labor contracts.

It seems like an unprecedented step for the university.

“To our knowledge, this is the first time that one of the unions with which the University of California contracts has conducted a full strike during a closed contract with a no-strike clause,” said Heather Hansen, spokesperson for the UC Office of the University. President, wrote in an email to KCAL News. “It also marks the first time the university has had to go to state court to protect its right to labor peace under its collective bargaining agreements.”

Teaching assistants, researchers and other graduate student workers on UC campuses have protested their schools’ response to demonstrations over the Gaza conflict in recent months. Some universities have called in police from off campus, perhaps most prominently at UCLA, where Los Angeles Police Department officers dressed in riot gear arrested more than 200 people and dismantled a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus on May 1 . violent clashes had broken out.

Workers with the union now leading a series of strikes across the state, United Auto Workers (UAW) 4811, say their right to freedom of speech and expression in the workplace has been violated. Some were among those arrested at protests, while others faced disciplinary action from their schools, such as suspensions or bans from campus.

“Today is about putting pressure on the UC to put an end to the quite ridiculous and egregious allegations that many of our students and UAW members are currently facing,” said Savannah Plaskon, a UC Irvine teaching assistant, Wednesday during a workers’ strike on campus. .

“Many of them have been suspended and banned from campus, not just here at UCI, but across the various UC campuses,” she said.

The union represents 48,000 employees across all 11 campuses within the UC system.

From UC Davis to UC San Diego, 500 miles away, academic workers have gone on strike in a series of so-called “Stand Up” demonstrations that began on May 20. They are asking for amnesty for workers arrested during protests. meaning they will not face any convictions, expulsions, suspensions or other disciplinary actions from the universities where they work.

But the UAW 4811 protests also call for something else, a key demand of pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses nationwide: divestment. As noted on the union’s website, the “Stand Up” strikes around California are calling on UC schools to divest “arms manufacturers, military contractors and companies profiting from Israel’s war on Gaza” — or their known investments in – to take away. The union is also demanding that colleges disclose all their funding sources through a publicly available database and that researchers be given the opportunity to opt out of funding sources “related to the military or the oppression of the Palestinians.”

The UC system has argued that the strikes are illegal and that they violate a no-strike clause in union workers’ contracts. The university has also countered that the strikes are rooted in political motivations that are not relevant to labor rights.

It’s all led to a back-and-forth legal battle — with complaints to national and state labor officials on both sides — that escalated to a seemingly unprecedented level this week when the university sued the union.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in court in Orange County, asks the state to issue a temporary restraining order against UAW 4811, which would immediately end the strike. The 11-campus public university system also says the strikes are disrupting students through canceled classes and delayed grades, at a particularly crucial time as they face final exams.

“The breach of contract also jeopardizes life-saving research in hundreds of laboratories across the university and will also cause significant financial harm to the university,” Melissa Matella, associate vice president for Systemwide Labor Relations at the university, said in a UC statement. Office of the President.

Of the potential grounds for the university’s lawsuit, its claim of financial losses could prove the most crucial to its case.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that in Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters an employer can sue a union for damage resulting from an employee strike. At the time, labor advocates said the ruling would have a chilling effect on workers who want to protest, stripping them of a bargaining tool they have used for decades.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) typically handles situations where the federally protected right to strike is questioned. But the 2023 SCOTUS decision opened the way for unions to be sued for “foreseeable” harm caused by strikes, bypassing the usual use of a public labor board in deciding the issue by implementing that decision themselves.

UAW 4811 has argued that its strikes on UC campuses are legal. The union has also filed unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB against UC because the university has labeled their protests “unlawful.”

“The Public Labor Relations Board has the sole authority to determine the legality of a strike, and UC’s claim contradicts decades of established law,” said a statement on the union’s website. “The Supreme Court and subsequent cases in California have found that even if a contract contains a non-strike clause, it does not waive employees’ right to strike for serious unfair labor practices of the kind committed by UC, and participation in such strike is protected activity.”

“UC’s attempt to label the strike as unprotected is an intimidation tactic,” the statement continued.

The lawsuit followed a decision by the California Public Employment Relations Board to deny a request for injunctive relief by the UC, which would have forced an end to the protests. The union claims the recently filed lawsuit is an attempt to “ignore the authority” of the state leadership to continue pushing for an end to the strikes.

Rafael Jaime, president of UAW 4811, also claims the university is not taking responsibility for handling protests in a way that protects student safety. Last month, the union announced a vote on “Stand Up” strikes, a day after what UCLA police have described as a walkout. violent attack on a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus on April 30.

“UC continues to evade responsibility for the violence it has caused and permitted against union members and the campus community,” Jaime said in the statement. “Rather than going around PERB looking for a more favorable decision, UC should respect the law, return to mediation and provide a resolution to their serious unfair labor practices.”

“As we have made clear from the beginning, we stand up against UC’s violent crackdown on our rights to free speech and peaceful protest, embodied in our labor rights,” Jaime said in the statement. “UC has allowed our colleagues to be beaten, beaten, arrested and barred from work for peacefully demonstrating.”