Quick Take
Graduate student workers are no longer striking after reaching an agreement Thursday with the University of California. Union members authorized a strike in May over the UC's handling of Gaza solidarity encampments at several campuses.
The University of California and its graduate student workers union agreed to formally end the union’s strike Thursday, nearly a month after an Orange County Superior Court judge granted the university’s request for a temporary restraining order pausing the labor action.
United Auto Workers 4811, the union representing 48,000 graduate student workers at the UC’s 10 campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, voted to strike in protest of how the university, at multiple campuses, used police to arrest pro-Palestine protesters and clear encampments.
The strike started May 20 at UC Santa Cruz – then spread to six other UC campuses – and was authorized by the union to last through June 30.
The court’s restraining order was initially in effect June 7 through June 27, but the parties said Thursday they agreed to extend the order through the strike’s previously planned June 30 end date.
UAW 4811’s unit chair at UCSC, Rebecca Gross, said she’s happy with the unit’s strike impact but is disappointed that the UC went to a court to obtain the restraining order because, she said, UC went around the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) process. The public-sector labor board previously rejected two of the university’s requests to stop the strike.
She added that the union agreed to the extended restraining order – essentially ending its strike early – in exchange for the university dropping a request for a court injunction to prevent the graduate student workers from striking through the end of their contracts – which expire in 2027.
“I wish it hadn’t ended as it did. I wish that we had been able to strike without, for lack of a better way of saying it, these B.S. legal barriers that I think were wielded in a really shady way,” Gross said. “But I also feel really proud to be a member of UAW at UC Santa Cruz and on a statewide level.”
Gross said she didn’t yet know if the union would try to resume the strike in the coming school year as there haven’t been discussions yet at the union’s executive board to call for another strike authorization vote in the fall.
Missy Matella, associate vice president of UC Systemwide Employee and Labor Relations, said in a statement that the university is still awaiting the decision on the legality of the strike.
“While we are relieved this strike is over, we continue to seek clarity that our no-strike clauses are enforceable and that we can rely on our contracts to provide labor peace through the term of our agreements,” she said.
The next hearing in Orange County Superior Court on the UC’s lawsuit accusing the union of breach of contract is scheduled for Nov. 8. At the same time, the Public Employment Relations Board continues to review unfair labor practice charges filed by both the university and the union.
Gross said PERB has a hearing in August and the union expects to get the results of that in early fall.
“I’m pretty certain that PERB will find that we’ve done nothing illegal in taking this sanctioned unfair labor practice strike,” she said.
Last week, the UCSC union made an offer to school administrators to complete about 5,000 unfinished grades from the spring quarter in exchange for the university dropping the charges against more than 100 people arrested at the Gaza solidarity encampment May 30 and 31.
The university rejected the offer, saying it doesn’t negotiate with union members at a campus level but only at a statewide level. Gross said the union’s offer wasn’t a negotiation and that many grades are still unfinished. Per UCSC policy, the grades will become pass/not pass grades if not completed by July 17.
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.