UCLA employees walked off the job Tuesday to protest the university’s response to demonstrations in Gaza on campus, claiming workers’ rights had been violated.
Researchers, graduate student teaching assistants and other academic employees of the United Auto Workers (UAW) 4811 union organized the strike to speak out against the crackdown on campus demonstrations and pro-Palestinian encampments that have sprung up at colleges across the US. The union joins critics, including hundreds of UCLA faculty members and some lawmakers in Washington, D.C., who have said that the decision by UCLA leadership to use outside law enforcement to dismantle the encampment violates the First Amendment rights of students and employees.
Academic employees at UC Davis were also expected to participate in Tuesday’s strike. The union’s strike began last week when workers at UC Santa Cruz were protesting and holding up signs calling for fair labor practices and divestment. an important requirement of pro-Palestinian demonstrators at American universities.
UAW 4811 represents 48,000 academic employees across all 10 UC campuses.
The first announced a possible strike the night after an attack on a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA. In a statement, the union said a group of counter-protesters “beat protesters, including members of UAW 4811, with sticks, sprayed them with bear spray and pelted them with bottles and fireworks.” UCLA police created their first arrest in the April 30 attack this week.
Although they failed to protect protesters in that case, the union claims, UC leaders called in riot police to stop the protests.
“From the hours of unchecked violence at UCLA to the continued deployment of riot police on campuses like UCLA, UCSD and UC Irvine, UC has consistently violated employees’ rights to free speech in our workplace, even though UC police should have to protect. ‘, it says on the union’s website.
Union leaders are calling for no arrests, expulsions, suspensions or other disciplinary measures against students and workers participating in the protests, as well as for the university to divest from “arms manufacturers, military contractors and companies profiting from Israel’s war on Gaza.”
The University of California has called some of the union’s demands “politically motivated,” and therefore the strike is not legal. The public university system filed an injunction with the state labor board last week in an effort to stop the strike, saying it would violate a “no-strike” clause in the union’s contract. The UC claimed that such a demonstration is not legal because the union’s protests and negotiations “must be linked to the terms and conditions of employment in the collective bargaining agreement.”
“The UAW strike is unlawful because its purpose is to pressure the university to give in to a list of politically motivated demands closely related to the protests taking place across California and the nation,” reads a statement May 21 statement from the UC Office of the President.
California’s Public Employment Relations Board denied the UC’s request for a preliminary injunction, which would have put an immediate end to the strike. Although it denied the UC’s request, the Labor Council ordered the university and the union to enter into formal mediation.
“’DENED’: UC is not above the law,” the union wrote on social media after the rejected court order.
Employees on UC campuses will be called on to strike by union leadership at various times as part of the “Stand Up” protests, rather than having all union members demonstrate at the same time. The union has said leadership at UC schools has not negotiated with student protesters in the same way as other U.S. universities, saying management at California campuses must “change course.”
“At several other universities across the country, management has taken the protesters’ demands seriously and begun negotiations with coalitions of students, workers and community members over their divestment from companies supplying weapons to Israel’s war in Gaza,” it said. a statement the union previously released. this month. “This option is also open to UC.”
Last week, Democratic Rep. Mark Takano of California’s 41st Congressional District asked Chancellor Block why UCLA leadership did not negotiate with protesters. He called what happened at UCLA “an unfortunate contrast” with the other two schools whose leaders were questioned during the Congressional hearing. , Rutgers and Northwestern Universities.
While deals were made with protesters on those campuses, there was no such deal at UCLA – instead, outside law enforcement agencies responded, dismantled the pro-Palestinian encampment on campus and arrested more than 200 people.
Block said there was “a real attempt at discussion” that proved unsuccessful.
He said a UCLA vice chancellor sat with protesters at the camp and “discussed possible solutions,” but that did not lead to any agreement. He said he called in the LAPD and other law enforcement when it became apparent that the safety of the entire campus was at risk.
