UC Santa Barbara Academic Workers to Go on Strike on Monday

[Updated: Fri., May 31, 2024, 12:30pm]

On Monday, June 3, academic workers represented by the United Auto Workers Local 4811 (UAW) at UC Santa Barbara will walk off on the job and go on strike, protesting what it calls the University of California’s “Unfair Labor Practices” (ULPs) regarding the UC’s response to pro-Palestinian protests and encampments on UC campuses around the state. The Executive Board of the UAW authorized three additional campuses on Friday, May 31 — UCSB, UC San Diego, and UC Irvine — to join the union’s ULP strike, which has already encompassed the campuses at UC Santa Cruz, UCLA, and UC Davis. 

In a union-wide vote held May 13-15, 48,000 academic workers represented by the UAW union overwhelmingly certified the UAW Executive Board to call “stand-up” strikes when deemed necessary. Friday’s announcement has now brought the total number of academic workers — composed of student workers, teaching assistants (TAs), and graduate students — called to strike across the UC system to 31,500, including 3,000 at UCSB.

According to a press release from the UAW, some of the ULPs include the use of outside law enforcement response “to violently eject and arrest peaceful pro-Palestine protesters at UCLA, UC Irvine, and UC San Diego.”  As a consequence of the union’s efforts to work toward resolution with the UC regarding the ULPs, the UC has, according to the UAW, failed “to remedy these serious unfairs, despite opportunities for UC to work towards resolution.”

“UC has unilaterally changed their policies on employee speech and discipline, without giving our union notice or negotiating these changes,” said Tessa Cookmeyer, a postdoctoral scholar at UCSB. “UC then used these changed policies to not only arrest and injure dozens of our coworkers, but also ban many of them from their workplaces and homes. What’s at stake here are our core rights as workers and union members, and the ability of anyone in the UC community to take part in this historic movement for justice in Palestine.”

The expansion of the academic workers strike to UCSB follows a “Strike Ready” held on Thursday, May 23, in anticipation of the Executive Board’s decisions to call rolling strikes — a call that was answered this Friday. 

“For the last month, UC has used and condoned violence against workers and students peacefully protesting on campus for peace and freedom in Palestine,” said Rafael Jaime, the President of Local 4811. “Rather than put their energies into resolution, UC is attempting to halt the strike through legal procedures. They have not been successful, and this strike will roll on. We are united in our demand that UC address these serious ULPs, beginning with dropping all criminal and conduct charges that have been thrown at our members because they spoke out against injustice.”

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

Following UAW’s announcement this Friday, the University of California’s Office of the President sent a letter to employees represented by the UAW stating that any labor withheld during the union’s work stoppage must be reported as “leave without pay” and that workers who do not properly report absences or refuse “to perform your duties during an unlawful strike” could face “corrective action.” 

The letter concludes with “Relevant Contract Language” from the no-strike provision of the Graduate Student Researcher (GSR) contract — a contract that came about as a result of the union’s labor strike in 2022. “Any GSR who violates this article,” the provision warns, “shall be subject to discipline up to and including termination of employment, in accordance with Article 7 – Discipline and Dismissal.”

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