As pro-Palestine grad student strike digs in, most UCSC classes go remote and faculty weigh options

UC Santa Cruz’s campus was noticeably empty Tuesday afternoon, the second day of a strike by graduate student workers that has led the school to move most classes online and sparked a deepening battle between the University of California and one of its largest unions over the treatment of pro-Palestine protesters.

UCSC’s United Auto Workers 4811 unit chair, Rebecca Gross, said Day 2 of the strike saw dozens of picketers and supporters at both campus entrances. On Monday evening, school administrators announced that instruction would be moved online through at least Wednesday in case pro-Palestinian demonstrators at the base of campus blocked the entrance again as some did Monday. Originally located in Quarry Plaza, the UCSC student encampment for Palestine moved to the base of campus, across the street from picketers, and shut down the Bay Drive-Coolidge Drive intersection Monday.

About 1,500 UCSC graduate student workers walked off the job starting Monday morning, according to a union estimate, causing an unspecified number of sections to be canceled and lab and research work to stop. 

UCSC is the first campus to go on strike after UAW 4811, which represents about 48,000 graduate students across the 10 UC campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, voted last week to withhold their labor in response to the university’s treatment of pro-Palestine protesters at UCLA, UC San Diego and UC Irvine.

Using the “stand-up” strike model, the union’s executive board is calling on specific campuses to strike at different times. The union hasn’t announced which UC campus will be next, though in a notice posted online Tuesday, UAW 4811 said “tens of thousands of workers at other campuses are preparing to strike.”

Gross said she hadn’t yet heard about any updates regarding negotiations starting with UC administrators or additional UC campuses being called to strike. 

“We’re really hoping that another campus will come out soon and join us,” she said. “Although, of course, it’s always worth saying that the university could come to the table at any point and prevent more campuses from standing up. So we’ll see what happens.”

UAW 4811 says the strike will continue through June 30 or until the UC can resolve what the union says are unfair labor practices. UAW 4811 filed unfair labor practice charges with the state Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) against the UC after an encampment for Palestine at UCLA was attacked by counter-protesters and then raided by police – who arrested 200 protesters. 

The union has asked the UC to resolve the charges by reinforcing its commitment to free speech rights and granting amnesty to all the protesters across the UC system facing charges related to protesting, in addition to divesting from weapons-manufacturing companies and other similar demands raised by students leading encampments across the state. The UC has previously said that protesters are targeting $32 billion in assets for divestment. 

In a statement Tuesday, UAW 4811 said that the UC has refused to engage with efforts by the union and the state public-sector labor board to negotiate the charges. 

“We are open to sitting down with UC to resolve these Unfair Labor Practices,” Rafael Jaime, president of UAW 4811, said in the statement. “We stand ready to reach a resolution.”

UC administrators have countered that the strike is illegal. On Tuesday, the UC said it had filed for injunctive relief with PERB asking it to end the labor action, which it said is causing “irreparable harm” to the school and its students.

“UAW members play a critical role in year-end activities like teaching, grading, and ongoing time-sensitive research,” the UC wrote. 

UC officials are arguing that the strike is unlawful because it doesn’t involve workplace-related issues, but rather, “the goal is to pressure the University to concede to a list of politically motivated demands closely linked to the protests occurring across California and the nation.”

UAW 4811 said via Twitter it will file a response Wednesday to the injunctive relief filing. 

The labor board will ultimately be deciding if the strike is lawful, according to its general counsel, J. Felix De La Torre. 

He told Lookout that after the union files its response to the university’s request for injunctive relief, the board will review the request and “likely issue its decision by the end of the week.”

UCSC sociology professor Steve McKay said he believes the strike should be considered  workplace-related – and legal –  because the grievances raised by the union occurred on UC campuses, which are the workplaces of the graduate student workers.

“This school is a workplace and so these are workplace issues, when graduate students who participated in protests or any other concerted activity,” he said. “Unilateral decisions by the administration systemwide do affect their working conditions.” 

McKay, who is currently on sabbatical, previously led the UCSC Center for Labor and Community. He said he supports the UAW strike and was at the main entrance to campus on Monday. 

He added that this strike, based on PERB’s decision, could be precedent-setting and because of that, he said, “all eyes are on Santa Cruz.”

McKay said he’s been getting a lot of questions from faculty trying to understand the strike and their rights when it comes to picking up struck labor – or work, like grading assignments or teaching sections, that graduate students typically do. He previously chaired the union that represents UCSC faculty. 

Faculty media liaison and literature and history of consciousness professor Chris Connery said the association’s position is that faculty should not pick up struck labor – as many faculty members didn’t do during the December 2022 UAW strike. 

Connery said he’s heard of a range of ways that faculty are responding to the strike. He’s personally heard from at least two faculty members that they are withholding all of their labor – or doing a sympathy strike. Others are teaching as usual and some are delivering instruction remotely. He said that while it’s unclear how long the strike will last, faculty are doing what they can to ensure students receive grades. 

For example, Connery teaches a senior seminar without teaching assistants, so none of those grades would be affected. However, he also teaches a class with about 32 students, with the assistance of two teaching assistants who are currently on strike. He said if the strike goes through the end of the academic year, those grades would likely be delayed until he can hire readers or graders to finish grading. 

First-year psychology and global health major Lilian Fisher said her section for Wednesday was canceled, as was one of her graduate student-taught classes and the section for it. Deadlines to submit some of her papers have also been pushed back. However, she said she supports the strike. 

“I think it’s really important for people to have their personal opinion and promote activism about what they’re passionate about,” she said. “It hasn’t really affected me that much.” 

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