Graduate students at the University of California, Santa Cruz, quit their jobs and went on strike Monday, the first campus to do so as part of a systemwide protest against a public university they say has violated the speech rights of pro-Palestinian advocates .
United Auto Workers Local 4811 represents 48,000 graduate students who work as teaching assistants, lecturers, researchers and other academic employees across the 10-campus UC system. Organizers said the campuses will not strike all at once, but instead opt for rolling strikes, to protest the arrests and forced expulsion by police of union members who took part in demonstrations calling for an end to the war in Gaza.
Rebecca Gross, a University of Santa Cruz literature graduate student and union leader, said at least 1,500 people were on strike Monday with no plans to return to work until the union reaches a deal with the university. Students and researchers don’t teach, assess or work in their labs, and they withhold data, she said.
“The police were unleashed and given the green light to arrest protesters,” she said at the Los Angeles, San Diego and Irvine campuses.
University officials say the strike is illegal and violates the union’s contract, which prohibits work stoppages. Both parties have filed unfair labor practice complaints with the California Public Employment Relations Board.
The union is demanding amnesty for all academic staff, students and teachers who face disciplinary action or arrest due to the protests. It also seeks to divest UC’s investments in arms manufacturers, contractors and companies, among others, that are helping Israel in its war against Hamas.
Tobias Higbie, a labor historian and director of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UCLA, said it is not unusual for unions to join forces on broad workplace issues that are not closely tied to wages and benefits.
“These are not everyday events, and maybe not even every year,” he said. “But they are not unheard of.”
The union’s action may be surprising to some, but so was what happened at UCLA earlier this month, Higbie said. On May 1, police in riot gear ordered the dispersal of more than a thousand people who had gathered on campus in support of Palestine, warning that those who refused to leave would be arrested.
The night before, police had waited to intervene when counter-protesters attacked the pro-Palestinian camp, causing injuries. California Governor Gavin Newsom denounced the delay.
Scott Hernandez-Jason, assistant vice chancellor at UC Santa Cruz, said afternoon classes will be held remotely on Monday.
“Our primary goal is to minimize the disruptive impact, especially given the many educational and research challenges that students and researchers have faced in recent years,” he said in an email. “Academic and operational continuity is essential to the University of California’s educational and research mission and a core responsibility to our students.”
