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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA WORKERS COULD LAUNCH STRIKE TO REJECT
REPRESSION OF STUDENT PROTESTS  
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People's Dispatch
May 11, 2024
People's Dispatch
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_ UAW Local 4811, representing student workers from the University of
California system, are holding a strike vote in response to the
university’s actions against pro-Palestine protesters _

Police detain students at UCLA in a parking lot., PSL

 

From May 13 to May 15, members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local
4811 will be holding a strike authorization vote for a potential
strike, in response to the University of California’s crackdown on
peaceful pro-Palestine student protesters.

Vote Yes on strike authorization: May 13-15 pic.twitter.com/KamvAU8yEq
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— UAW 4811 (@uaw_4811) May 10, 2024
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On May 3, the union local filed Unfair Labor Practices (ULP) charges
against the University of California (UC) system, in response to
various UC campuses sending police officers to brutalize student
protesters staging Gaza Solidarity Encampments.

Last week, administration at the University of Los Angeles- California
sent in the Los Angeles Police Department to clear out the Gaza
Solidarity encampment staged by student protesters, peacefully
demanding that their university divest from Israel. The encampment had
been under several rounds of attack from violent Zionist counter
protesters, who released bags of mice
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and cockroaches [[link removed]]
near the encampment and deployed fireworks and pepper spray
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against students. University officials did not respond to these
attacks, instead, in the pre-dawn hours of Thursday morning, LAPD
armed with riot gear swept into the camp, deploying rubber bullets and
flashbang grenades against the pro-Palestine student protesters.

UCLA student organizers reported that at least five people were shot
in the head with rubber bullets, landing students in the hospital
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serious injuries. 132 arrests were made and LAPD demolished the
encampment.

“Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our
situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are
already dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor
butchered half-lives if you fail to act.” – Comrade George Jackson
pic.twitter.com/BSdvIfg6Jx [[link removed]]

— The New York War Crimes (@nywarcrimes) May 2, 2024
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Similar repression also occurred by police against students at the
University of California – San Diego encampment on Monday morning of
this week, with hundreds of police forces invading the camp in riot
gear and arresting 64 protesters.

“It is important for Academic Employees to vote YES in the strike
authorization vote to show UC Administration that this unprecedented
crackdown on free speech on University campuses is unacceptable,”
writes UAW 4811. “Our members have been beaten, concussed, pepper
sprayed, both by counter-protestors and by police forces. As a union,
it is our responsibility to stand beside them and demand that UC stop
committing these gross Unfair Labor Practices.”

ULP strikes are fully legal in the United States, however, striking
for a political cause is banned under the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947.
This means that in the United States, union members have far fewer
rights to express collective political will than in other countries.
Other practices banned under Taft-Hartley include jurisdictional
strikes, wildcat strikes (strikes undertaken without the approval of
union leadership), solidarity strikes, secondary boycotts, secondary
and mass picketing, closed shops, and donations to federal political
campaigns.

Although UAW 4811 are calling for a ULP strike, fully legal under
Taft-Hartley, their collective action begins to challenge the
longstanding political neutrality of the US labor movement, which has
been fostered by a hostile, anti-union system of legislation. Their
bold actions as student workers, supporting students who are standing
in solidarity with Gaza, echo some other actions taken by organized
labor within the student movement for Palestine.

At Columbia University, UAW 2710, the Student Workers of Columbia,
staged multiple pickets around Columbia’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment
while it still stood, and has called
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amnesty for all students, staff, and faculty facing disciplinary
action related to pro-Palestine protest and speech.” The local has
even stood completely with the demands of student protesters for
Columbia’s divestment from Israel.

“We do not back down from demanding the full transparency of
Columbia University on their investments, full divestment, and amnesty
for all the students and student workers who have suffered
disciplinary actions for their activism,” the union wrote in a
statement. “We vow to use our labor power and the tools we have as a
labor union to continue the fight in solidarity with Gaza, the whole
of Palestine, and the international worker movement that continues to
fight for their liberation.”

Unionized faculty at the City University of New York system also took
action in support of student protesters staging a Gaza Solidarity
Encampment. On April 29, within the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at the
City College of New York in New York City, university workers
organized under the Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY) held a town
hall meeting [[link removed]]
to deliberate on how to use their labor power to support the five
demands [[link removed]] of the
student encampment. The members attending the town hall organized a
wildcat sick-out, in which union members will call in sick en masse to
disrupt business as usual at the larger City University of New York
(CUNY) system. The PSC faculty at the town hall voted overwhelmingly
to stage a sick-out.

“Our students are taking incredible risks to support the Palestinian
people. They have asked for our help. We must stand ready to struggle
alongside them, and to take these risks,” faculty wrote in a
statement
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After the Governor of Texas sent state troopers to brutalize student
protesters at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at the University of
Texas – Austin, faculty at the university announced a 24-hour work
stoppage
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for April 25. These faculty acted together in support of the students,
even without a union.

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* UAW at UCLA; Unions and Student Protests; Unfair Labor Practise
Strikes;
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