Hundreds of unionized workers at UC San Diego joined the picket line Monday, becoming the latest group to participate in the UAW Local 4811 strikes across multiple University of California campuses.
UAW Local 4811, representing 48,000 union members system-wide, has 8,000 members at UC San Diego.
The union is comprised of student employees, graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and more, and they are striking in response to alleged unfair labor practices (ULP).
The union believes the UC system violated their rights by not allowing them to peacefully protest on campus in recent months.
This follows the dismantling of Gaza Solidarity Encampments across UC campuses, including UC San Diego's encampment on May 6.
Rallies have already taken place at UC Santa Cruz, UC Los Angeles, and UC Davis. On Monday, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, and UC Irvine joined the statewide strike.
However, UC San Diego said the union's strike is in violation of their contract's no-strike clause. The university provided a statement regarding the situation:
As stated in the University of California filings with the state Public Employment Relations Board, our position is that UAW is engaging in an illegal strike in violation of the contract’s mutually agreed no-strike clauses because of issues that have no bearing on employment at UC. While UC San Diego is taking the steps it can to minimize the impacts on the continuity of research and learning, this illegal strike hurts our students by disrupting typical class delivery, assignment grading and other learning activities during a critical time of year when students are diligently preparing for finals and completing final projects.
Joyce Chan, a postdoc in Neuroscience at UC San Diego and a UAW 4811 member, expressed concerns about safety on campus.
"When the university brings in hundreds of cops, riot gear, and the sheriffs when they have snipers stationed on top of university buildings, for me that does not make me feel safe," Chan said.
Chan said the strike will end if UC officials can come to the table and negotiate over the alleged unfair labor practices. The union demands that misconduct and suspension charges against those arrested on May 6 be dropped.
Gweneviere Frank, an elected head steward for UAW 4811, said, "The bottom line is, all of these workers that were arrested, suspended, etc., need to have amnesty - that's the only way we're going to move forward."
