UCLA academic workers set to strike over campus protest crackdown

University of California, Santa Cruz graduate students and other academic workers in the UAW 4811 union begin a strike and are joined by UCSC students for Justice in Palestine as they picket the main entrance to campus on Monday, May 20, 2024, in Santa Cruz, Calif. (Shmuel Thaler/The Santa Cruz Sentinel via AP)

LOS ANGELES – A rolling strike by unionized academic workers upset about the University of California’s response to pro Palestinian protests at various campuses will come to UCLA beginning Tuesday as part of the second wave of union walkouts.

Workers represented by United Auto Workers Local 4811 have already been striking at UC Santa Cruz in what the union called the first wave of planned walkouts. According to the union, the second round of strikes will begin Tuesday at UCLA and UC Davis.

The strike is “in response to egregious unfair labor practices that UC has committed, including summoning militarized police officers from numerous outside law enforcement to violently eject and arrest peaceful protesters at UCLA, UC Irvine, and UC San Diego; making unilateral changes to standards for employee discipline, free speech rights and academic freedom; and disciplining and suspending employees engaged in peaceful protest,” according to the union.

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.

In a statement released before the union’s strike-authorization vote, officials at the University of California Office of the President said, “UC believes that the vote currently being conducted by UAW leadership sets a dangerous precedent that would introduce non-labor issues into labor agreements. If a strike is allowed for political and social disputes, the associated work stoppages would significantly impact UC’s ability to deliver on its promises to its students, community and the State of California.”

The union represents teaching assistants, readers, tutors, student researchers and academic researchers.

UAW Local 4811 is asking the UC schools to give amnesty to all academic employees and students who face arrest or disciplinary actions for protesting. The union 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 Force. (CNS)