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A judge has halted a University of California academic workers’ strike that was supporting pro-Palestinian protesters.
UAW Local 4811 members walked off the job May 20, starting at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The systemwide union demanded, among other things, that the UC system drop criminal and disciplinary charges against members who were arrested and subjected to discipline on multiple campuses for their pro-Palestinian activism.
The work stoppage had grown to include five other campuses: Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Diego. More than 30,000 graduate student workers, postdoctoral scholars and other academic employees were eventually called on to participate in what the UC system called an “illegal” strike.
The system asked the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to stop the walkout. When PERB didn’t immediately do so, the system sued the UAW in Orange County Superior Court seeking a temporary restraining order to end the strike. On Friday, the Superior Court judge granted the order.
“We are extremely grateful for a pause in this strike so our students can complete their academic studies,” said Melissa Matella, UC’s associate vice president for systemwide employee and labor relations, in a news release. “The strike would have caused irreversible setbacks to students’ academic achievements and may have stalled critical research projects in the final quarter.”
Matella said that, while the UC system respects “our community’s right to engage in lawful free speech activities,” the work stoppage was “unrelated to employment terms, violates the parties’ agreements, and runs contrary to established labor principles.”
The restraining order is in effect until June 27—past the end of the campuses’ spring quarters. Union president Rafael Jaime suggested in the release that UAW 4811 will keep fighting in court.
“UC academic workers are facing down an attack on our whole movement,” Jaime said, and “this struggle is far from over. In the courtroom, the law is on our side and we’re prepared to keep defending our rights.”
