Academic Workers Host ‘Strike-Ready’ Rally at UC Santa Barbara

Workers Ready to Act in Solidarity with Protests Across UC System Alleging Unfair Labor Practices at Pro-Palestinian Rallies

Academic workers hold up a "Strike Ready" banner at Thursday's rally at UCSB. | Credit: Jack Magargee

Academic workers on UC Santa Barbara’s campus organized a “Strike-Ready” Rally on Thursday, May 23, in front of Davidson Library on the Arbor walkway in an effort to show solidarity with graduate and undergraduate students protests across the UC system. The rally followed the United Auto Workers 4811 (UAW) authorization on the morning of May 23 to launch academic worker strikes at UCLA and UC Davis, which were planned for Tuesday, May 28.

According to the press release from the UAW 4811, the addition of UCLA and UC Davis were in response to UC Board of Regents inaction toward mitigating the alleged unfair labor practices, specifically stemming from the UC’s decision to employ police response to “peaceful protests” supporting Gaza on campuses across the state.

Around 200 individuals participated in UCSB’s most recent rally, the majority of whom remained masked as protesters walked from Davidson Library to the Physical Sciences North Building. The Academic Worker rally also stopped at the UCSB Liberated Zone — the Pro-Palestine encampment that was constructed on May 1 — to show their solidarity with the student protesters engaged with the encampment protest.

Ralliers directed chants at the UC Board of Regents for allegations of unfair labor practices and hosted speakers from the local UAW chapter that left little doubt about the local chapter’s stance on striking.

One speaker yelled in support of their colleagues at UCLA and UC Davis — the second and third campuses to be called to strike following UC Santa Cruz graduate students, who went on strike for pro-Palestine supporters beginning May 20. The speaker called out that UCSB “should be the fourth campus called to strike,” a declaration demonstrating their commitment to the UAW as well as an assertion to UCSB administrators that the local union is more than willing to join the picket line.

If and when a strike is called for the academic workers on campus, it will be up to the larger UAW union, but that doesn’t detract from the fervor of academic student employees — including graduate students and teaching assistants — on UCSB’s campus.

“What the UC system does will shape how the union organizes,” said Academic Student Employee Unit Chair Madeline Vailhe.

“No interaction and no outreach from the administration,” said Vailhe, puts the UCSB campus in a position to engage in a strike.

The momentum of demonstrations on UCSB’s campus has been described as “unprecedented” according to graduate students involved with the pending strike.

“I have never seen an energy like this before,” said Vailhe. “What the UC does will shape how the union [UAW] will organize in the future,” whether it is a free speech cause or a labor cause, she added, which was the catalyst the labor union rallied on in 2022.

Campus organizer Vailhe said the union has tried to remain neutral amid the tumultuous political issue that has plagued national politics. That being said, Vailhe iterated a point of defense and solidarity for student and non-student organizers across UC campuses in the name of free speech and freedom of protest.

“Fundamentally, this is a free-speech issue,” quoted Vailhe, who went on to say that the union’s activism on campus has been “unprecedented” in its ability to rally academic workers, faculty, and undergraduate students alike.

“I’ve never seen this much energy for a movement that wasn’t economic,” said one graduate student.

According to the strike organizers, whatever the UC Board of Regents decides to do will shape how the union responds — whether that be calling for a strike among academic workers on UCSB’s campus or not. And while the UC Santa Barbara administration has chosen not to engage local law enforcement organizations on peaceful demonstrations, other administrations across the UC system — especially UCLA — have drawn national attention and heavy criticism for the administration’s decision to delegate local law enforcement to shut down similar encampments and rallies.

While some campus administrations have engaged in negotiations with strike organizers — namely UC Berkeley — UCSB’s administration has remained “relatively silent” and has made little to no effort to engage with negotiations, according to Vailhe.

So while a graduate student strike has not been called for on UCSB’s campus, many academic workers believe and advocate for UCSB to join the picket line, striking in solidarity with their colleagues across the UC system who are protesting for a liberated Palestine.

“We are protesting our right to free speech … the right to say whatever we want, whether that be pro-Palestine or pro-Israel,” said Vailhe.

She continued that by calling on the UC to engage with protest stakeholders, UCSB academic workers intend for the strike to push campus and system-wide administrators to engage with individual campus stakeholders, such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and local chapters of UC Divest.

While a strike has not been thus called on UC Santa Barbara’s campus, one could be called at any time according to the authorization of the Executive Board of the UAW 4811. The Executive Board is expected — but not predicted — to call more campuses to strike, which will occur suddenly and swiftly in order to catch UC campus administrations off guard.

Despite the increasingly public pressure condemning UCSB’s investment in military defense companies such as Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Northup Grumman, the administration has done little to address specific campus-related demands and issues.

“This strike is illegal,” said Melissa Matella, associate vice president of Systemwide Labor Relations in a statement released by the UC President’s Office on May 16. “UAW’s decision to strike over nonlabor issues violates the no-clause of their contracts with UC and sets a dangerous and far-reaching precedent that social, political and cultural issues — no matter how valid — that are not labor-related can support a labor strike.”

Around 200 individuals participated in Thursday’s rally from Davidson Library to the Physical Sciences North Building at UCSB. | Credit: Jack Magargee

In response to the strike, the University of California last week filed an unfair labor practice charge with the state Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), which investigated the charge and this Thursday issued a complaint against UAW for what the UC called the union’s “unlawful strike activity.”

“The University is pleased by this expedited action from PERB,” said Matella in a statement on Thursday. “We have maintained from the beginning that UAW’s actions violate our mutually agreed contracts. We are eager to see a quick and just resolution to this matter so that our students, faculty, and staff can end this academic quarter without further disrupting their education and progress towards degree completion.”

PERB noted that UAW and UC have no-strike clauses in their contracts, which state: “During the term of this agreement or any written extension thereof, the University agrees that there shall be no lockouts by the University. The UAW, on behalf of its officers, agents, and members agrees that there shall be no strikes, including sympathy strikes, stoppages or interruptions of work, or other concerted activities which interfere directly or indirectly with University operations during the life of this agreement or any written extension thereof. The UAW, on behalf of its officers, agents, and members, agrees that it shall not in any way authorize, assist, encourage, participate in, sanction, ratify, condone, or lend support to any activities in violation of this article.”

PERB’s complaint states that UAW “failed to provide adequate advance notice of its work stoppage, and failed and refused to meet and confer in good faith in violation of Government Code section 3571.1(c).”

The UC had requested an injunction against striking academic workers, seeking immediate action before PERB reached a final decision on the unfair labor practice charge. However, PERB denied that request, a move the UAW praised in a statement on Thursday.

“We’re glad PERB has rejected UC’s latest demand for special treatment under the law,” said Rafael Jaime, the President of UAW 4811. “UC has allowed members of the academic community to be brutalized by violent agitators, and called in police to trample on our members’ rights in direct contradiction to UC’s own policies. Our workers have walked off the job to demand resolution of these brazen unfair labor practices. PERB’s decision to deny their request for an injunction proves that no employer gets to make up its own rules.”

An informal settlement meeting between the UC and UAW was scheduled by PERB for this Friday morning. If a settlement is not reached during the mediation session, the case will then go before an administrative law judge, where both sides present evidence and arguments. That formal hearing would not occur “for approximately three to four months after the date of the informal conference,” according to PERB.

Jackson Friedman contributed reporting to this story.