UC workers strike blends traditional labor stoppage with pro-Palestinian fervor

Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Sunday, June 2. I’m your host, Andrew J. Campa. Here’s what you need to know this weekend:

• Mexicans elect a new president today, their first female one.
• Northern L.A. County district weighs in on Trump verdict.
• And here’s today’s e-newspaper

UC worker strikes are familiar and new in fervor

A typical union strike has a few common, core requests: better pay, robust benefits and safe working conditions.

The current academic worker strikes at UCLA, UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz certainly include traditional elements of a labor stoppage. Yet they also represent a merger of union accusations alleging workplace mistreatment with the goals of the wider pro-Palestinian campus movement.

On-campus chants have including phrasing such as “workers rights under attack,” with that message being tied directly to pro-Palestinian union members arrested and suspended after recent protests.

Traditional signs and marches have included a growing number of protesters waving Palestinian flags and wearing kaffiyehs, the black checked traditional scarves used to express Palestinian solidarity.

These marchers have pressed for demands mirroring those of the students they work with, namely for the University of California to divest its ties to Israel and the war in Gaza and grant all protesters amnesty from campus discipline.

While this merger has pumped new blood into the pro-Palestinian campus movements, it’s widened a gap between workers and administrators over its purpose and legality. Labor experts are split on how the unique demands of United Auto Workers Local 4811 could come to a precedent-setting end.

Who is striking and why

The 48,000-member union includes graduate teaching assistants, researchers and some academic workers who lead discussion groups, grade papers and administer exams, among other responsibilities at UC’s 10 campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

They walked off the job alleging their free speech rights to speak out about their workplaces were violated when UC leaders called in police to remove pro-Palestinian encampments at several campuses, resulting in arrests and suspensions.

They also contend the university violated their rights as workers by failing to protect them when a violent mob attacked protesters at UCLA, including union members, and police took hours to intervene.

The union bases the charges on the experiences of dozens of members who protested at UCLA, UC San Diego and UC Irvine. The union also says universities unilaterally changed their job conditions when classes were moved online amid protests instead of bargaining over those work-related decisions.

How have the UCs countered

UC Berkeley’s outgoing Chancellor Carol Christ said she supported examining Berkeley’s investments in “a targeted list of companies due to their participation in weapons manufacturing, mass incarceration, and/or surveillance industries” and would push University of California regents on divestment.

UC Riverside Chancellor Kim Wilcox said he would form a task force to “explore the removal of UCR’s endowment from the management of the UC Investments Office, and the investment of said endowment in a manner that will be financially and ethically sound for the university with consideration to the companies involved in arms manufacturing and delivery.”

UC leaders also said they are asking the state labor authority — the Public Employment Relations Board — to order the union to halt its strike during a critical ending period of the term with finals and grading at hand.

Legal debate

Unions have long played a role in elections and even supported foreign policy positions, “but this is different,” said David Lewin, a professor emeritus of management, human resources and organizational behavior at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

“Striking workers are taking a risk in supporting one side of a two-party conflict,” Lewin said. “It looks opportunistic because you have employees of the university striking at the end of a quarter or semester when final exams are being given, grades are due and people have to graduate. It puts a lot of pressure on the university.”

Other labor experts take a different view.

The university’s messaging “is meant to intimidate the workers into not going on strike,” said Tobias Higbie, a UCLA professor of history and labor studies. “I wish the University of California would be a different type of employer, but apparently it’s not the way they want to go with this.”

What’s next

Mediation between UC and the UAW is ongoing, part of a multistep process that could drag far beyond the end of this quarter, which is mid-June at several campuses.

UC has also filed its own unfair labor practice allegation against the union, saying it violated its contract by striking.

For more on these strikes, here’s an analysis by Times reporter Jaweed Kaleem.

The week’s biggest stories

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Pro-Palestinian protests

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Column One

Column One is The Times’ home for narrative and longform journalism. Here’s a great piece from this week:

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How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.

For your weekend

(Diana Ramirez/De Los; Photos courtesy of LALIFF)

Going out

• 📽️ The five-day Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival wraps up in Hollywood today, starting at 10 a.m.
• 🏳️‍🌈 West Hollywood’s kickoff celebration to Pride Month ends Sunday, with festivities starting at noon.
• 🎶 Sherman Oaks is hosting its annual Spring Concert and Festival with cotton candy and balloons for the kids.

Staying in

• 🛡️ HBO’s docuseries “Ren Faire” debuts Sunday and lays out succession battles at the Texas Renaissance Festival.
• 📺 Actor Jeremy Renner makes his return after a near fatal accident in “Mayor of Kingstown” on Sunday.
• 🧑‍🍳 Happy National Rotisserie Chicken Day! Here’s a savory recipe for this dish.
• ✏️ Get our free daily crossword puzzle, Sudoku, word search and arcade games.

L.A. Affairs

Get wrapped up in tantalizing stories about dating, relationships and marriage.

(Ellen Surrey / For The Times)

Because I was the newbie at the school, I wanted to get to know everyone, so I organized a dinner with my colleagues at a fun rock ’n’ roll sushi bar on Lankershim Boulevard. Steve was obsessed with sushi so he attended, and we sat across from each other, vibing to the blaring music and talking and flirting all night. Tokyo Delve’s was just crazy that night with great rock music, and I went wild and danced on the chairs. I hoped that my co-workers — especially Steve — didn’t think I was too overzealous.

Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team

Andrew J. Campa, reporter
Carlos Lozano, news editor

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