UC Santa Cruz grad students plan to strike Monday in response to the university’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian demonstrators.Nic Coury/Special to the Chronicle 2021
By Jordan ParkerUpdated May 17, 2024 8:10 p.m. (SFChronicle.com)
A union representing about 2,000 UC Santa Cruz graduate student workers said its members will strike on Monday in protest of the University of California system’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian encampments and student protesters, some of whom are represented university workers.
The university’s crackdown on “peaceful protesters” amounted to “unfair labor practices,” according to UAW 4811, which represents 48,000 employees across the UC system. The union cited actions against protesters at UCLA and UC San Diego as cases in which it said the university trampled free speech rights of its members.
Santa Cruz will be the first campus whose represented student employees will strike. The campus is on the quarter system and the spring quarter ends on June 13.
“Our members have been beaten, concussed, pepper sprayed, both by counter-protesters and by police forces,” UAW 4811 said in a statement. “As a union, it is our responsibility to stand beside them and demand that UC stop committing these gross Unfair Labor Practices.”
Momentum toward a strike had been building up throughout the week, and on Friday the union said 79% of members voted to authorize the strike “if circumstances justify.”
“For many months, workers across California have protested the death, destruction, and human suffering in Gaza,” Rafael Jaime, president of UAW 4811, the union representing the workers, said on social media.
A UC Santa Cruz graduate student researcher, Douglas Grion Filho, said in the social media announcement: “Over the last two weeks, UC has allowed appalling violence and intimidation against members of our academic community who exercised their right to protest.”
In a statement Friday, the University of California said it has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board against UAW 4811, and requests its members “cease and desist strike activity.”
“Given UAW’s publicly stated position and the subsequent potential impacts on our students and campuses, we are forced to take decisive action to ensure we can continue to fulfill our fundamental missions of teaching, research and public service,” said Melissa Matella, Associate Vice President for Systemwide Labor Relations.
A day earlier, Matella said in a statement that the strike would violate a clause in the union’s contract that states it cannot strike over nonlabor issues.
“We respect and value a productive working relationship with our labor unions,” Matella said. “We collaborate regularly to reach mutually beneficial agreements around employment terms. We have and continue to hope that UAW will honor the terms of our contracts.”
The union said it has filed additional unfair labor practices charges against UC for labeling the planned strike as “unlawful.”
Reach Jordan Parker: Jordan.Parker@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @jparkerwrites
May 17, 2024|Updated May 17, 2024 8:10 p.m.
BREAKING NEWS REPORTER
Jordan Parker is a breaking news reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle. He graduated from Sacramento State University in May 2022 with a degree in journalism. During his time there, he spent three years as a reporter and editor for the university’s award-winning student newspaper, The State Hornet. He spent his senior year of college serving as The Hornet’s first Black editor in chief, leading the organization to two Pacemaker awards and several other national honors from the Associated Collegiate Press. When he’s not chasing down a story, he likes watching movies, traveling and trying new restaurants.
