Employees at the University of California, Irvine, are on strike over the UC system’s response to pro-Palestinian protesters who were arrested or suspended from their campuses.
University employees, including teaching assistants and lecturers, were the latest to be dismissed on Wednesday. Last week, a group at UCLA went on strike.
Union members say they are participating in an ongoing strike on multiple UC campuses. According to United Autoworkers, which represents workers at these campuses, more than 31,000 union workers across six campuses are participating in the strike.
“Today is about putting pressure on the UC system 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 UCI teaching assistant . “Many of them have been suspended and banned from campus.”
The University of California, Irvine released a statement saying:
The University continues to monitor the situation and has developed continuity plans to minimize the disruption of an unlawful strike to our students’ education, research and University operations.
The strike comes on the same day that three Jewish students filed suit against UC regents and other university officials, claiming in Los Angeles federal court that their civil rights were violated when UCLA allowed “anti-Semitist activists” to attack them and other students denied access to their university. classrooms, offices and the library during pro-Palestinian demonstrations in April and May.
In the complaint, two law students and a graduate student allege that UCLA allowed a group of extremist students and outside agitators to set up an encampment where they prevented Jewish students and faculty from entering the heart of campus.
