Quick Take
UC Santa Cruz graduate student workers and their more than 45,000 counterparts at the other nine University of California campuses are voting this week on whether the union should strike in support of free speech and in support of Palestine.
UC Santa Cruz graduate student workers and their more than 45,000 counterparts at the other nine University of California campuses are voting this week on whether the union should strike in support of free speech and in support of Palestine.
The union, United Auto Workers 4811, filed unfair labor practice charges on May 3 after UCLA administrators sent police to arrest about 200 protesters at the university’s encampment early in the morning of May 2. The night before, the encampment was attacked by counterprotesters for several hours without police intervention.
The elected UAW unit chair at UCSC, Rebecca Gross, told Lookout that the union, which represents about 2,000 workers on the campus, is expecting a very high turnout for the strike vote, which runs Monday through Wednesday. At UCSC so far, five graduate departments or programs say that all of their workers are willing to strike.
“What’s really amazing is this upsurge of activism that we’re seeing across the country and even internationally,” she said. “[We’re seeing] students standing up, faculty standing up, these encampments in solidarity with Gaza, and Rafah specifically, as Israel’s ground invasion continues. I think what grads on our campus – and now at a statewide level – have been thinking about is a labor strategy that dovetails with that.”
Gross is a third-year graduate student in the literature department who primarily works as a teaching assistant. She said as part of the students’ potential strike, the union is raising demands similar to those made by student protesters who have organized encampments across the country, including at UCSC’s Quarry Plaza.
The union’s demands include amnesty for all academic employees, students, faculty and staff due to protests, the protection of free speech and political expression on campus, UC divestment from weapons manufacturers and UC disclosure of all funding sources and investments. Finally, the union is demanding that researchers have the ability to opt out of funding sources that have ties to the military or oppression of Palestinians.
If two-thirds of the voters approve the strike, the executive board of the union would then have authorization to call the strike as soon as Wednesday, according to former unit chair Jack Davies. If the strike is called, the union would then likely begin negotiating with UC administrators on their demands.
“I think it’s extremely likely that the vote will be yes,” said Davies, who served as unit chair for the past three years. He’s graduating from the History of Consciousness department this spring.
However, he added that it’s not clear how many people will vote. If the vote authorization passes, but a small number of people vote, that could discourage the executive board of the union from authorizing the strike.
If the executive board authorizes the strike, Davies said, it could use the “stand-up strike” model. The strategy entails the executive board calling on specific campuses or workers to strike, and as negotiations progress, or don’t progress, calling on additional campuses to join the strike at a later date, potentially leading to an all-out stoppage.
Davies said it’s not clear what will happen or what strategy will be used if a strike is authorized.
A strike could significantly affect the UCs, including UCSC, right now as the academic year finishes in the coming weeks. At UCSC, instruction for spring quarter ends June 7, just ahead of final exams June 10 to 13.
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