On Tuesday morning, 6,400 academic workers represented by United Auto Workers (UAW) 4811 began their strike at UCLA. They joined 2,000 UC Santa Cruz workers in a rolling “stand up” strike, a model of calling for strikes at multiple worksites popularized by the UAW. UC Davis members also joined the strike on Tuesday. In total, there are 14,000 UAW Local 4811 members on strike across the UC system. 

At UCLA, workers gathered in front of Royce Hall, the former site of the Palestine Solidarity Encampment. 

This Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike is historic – some have claimed it is the first strike in solidarity with Palestinians in U.S. labor history. 

In a statement on Wednesday, UAW 4811 President Rafael Jaime said, ”As UAW members, we know the organizing that we’re engaging in is a crucial step towards pushing the University of California to the right side of history. Our co-workers across the state have been beaten, spit on, maced, burned, suspended, arrested, and barred from our homes and jobs all for exercising our essential rights as academic workers to speak up and protest… Past movements have succeeded and our current movement for free speech, for workers’ rights, and for peace and freedom in Palestine will succeed too.” 

ULPs filed by Local 4811 claim that UC administrators violated workers rights by allowing “Violent attacks on peaceful pro-Palestine protesters, both by violent anti-Palestine agitators and by police,” making unilateral changes to working conditions, and retaliating against employees for taking part in pro-Palestinian speech. 

To end the strike, Local 4811 said, the UC must resolve their ULPs and meet their demands, including “Amnesty for students and employees facing disciplinary action or arrest due to protest, right to free speech and political expression on campus, divestment from UC’s known investments in weapons manufacturers, military contractors, and companies profiting from Israel’s war on Gaza, and disclosure of all funding sources and investments.”

Rank and file 4811 members have issued more expansive strike demands including “Cops Off Campus,” a broad call for the end of policing on campus, including the termination of new-hire Rick Braziel and the Office of Campus Safety, the resignation of UCLA chancellor Gene Block, and the boycott of Israeli universities and research institutions. Ethan Friedland, a member of Local 4811 at UCLA, said that the rank and file were committed to bringing all of the demands of the student encampment to the fore. “It’s never been more apparent that ‘Cops Off Campus’ is necessary, but it’s also never been more popular,” Friedland said. 

The UC says the strike is political rather than related to workplace grievances. “UC believes that a strike sets a dangerous precedent that would introduce non-labor issues into labor agreements,” it stated earlier this month. They have called the strike unlawful. They filed an injunction request with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) last week that would essentially end the strike if approved. PERB denied it. 

Yesterday, the UC filed an amended injunction request, claiming the strike is causing “Irreparable harm” on campuses. UAW 4811 represents 48,000 academic workers across the UC including teaching assistants and researchers. Classes are being canceled and grades aren’t being submitted while the workers are on strike. UC’s filing says “UAW members, in the guise of a ‘strike’ are occupying buildings, blocking access to campuses, disrupting classes, and causing others to stop performing work on campuses.” 

According to Local 4811, UC administrators have repeatedly sent correspondence to members “Mischaracterizing UAW Local 4811’s strike authorization vote and including language intended to undermine the Union and chill protected concerted activity.” UAW 4811’s case lies in their claim that the violation of workers’ rights arose from the UC’s retaliation to political speech. Toby Higbie, director of UCLA’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, noted that it was not abnormal for unions to make demands unrelated to wages and benefits. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday, UCLA 4811 members picketed and marched throughout campus buildings. 4811 members also staged strategic pickets at parking structures on campus. At 3:30 a.m. Thursday morning, Friedland told Westside Voice via email that the pickets had successfully disrupted deliveries to the University. “Today, dozens of trucks carrying valuable cargo respected the UAW picket and carried their cargo elsewhere,” Friedland said. “There will be no business as usual.”  

UCLA’s vice chancellor for strategic communications, Mary Osako, issued the following statement on Tuesday: “Our talented students are getting ready for finals, and UCLA’s focus is doing whatever we can to support them. They’re paying tuition and fees to learn, and we’re dismayed by deliberate outside disruptions that get in the way of that. Students want to hear their professors teach, not the piercing sounds of trumpets, drums, and slogans being shouted right outside their classroom windows.”

Friedland stressed that the strike, though intentionally disruptive, was meant to challenge the administrators and not the student body. On May 10, Friedland joined UCLA professors Saree Makdisi, Grace Hong, and Hannah Appel at a strike teach-in for undergraduates, faculty, and alumni. In response to a question about learning being disrupted, Friedland said “The learning is taking place on the line. We’re working to make a safer university so that we can get back to the classroom knowing that we can conduct learning without fear of police violence.”

“As TAs, we hate to neglect the education of our students, but we understand that this moment calls for certain sacrifices. I can’t teach my students if I can’t ensure their safety against fascist agitators and heavily armed police,” Friedland said.

“When we have police officers and armed guards occupying our buildings, those are not conditions in which learning easily takes place,” Professor Makdisi said. 

Employees of three separate private security agencies were visible from the picket line on Tuesday. 

590 LAPD officers were deployed at UCLA from April 30 to May 3 according to the L.A. city controller. They were paid more than $580,000 in all. These numbers reflect only part of the total presence and price of the police response to UCLA. The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, the California Highway Patrol, and the University of California Police Department also converged on the student encampment. 

Faculty at UCLA are organizing to act in solidarity with striking workers. More than 300 faculty members at UCLA have signed a pledge of non-retaliation against striking 4811 members. UC-AFT, the union of librarians and lecturers, has filed its own ULP against the UC. On May 24, 79 percent of UCLA UC-AFT members voted “no confidence” in UCLA Chancellor Gene Block. 

UC-AFT has been advising its members on their rights during the strike. “There’s good reason to be concerned that you will be receiving confusing, contradictory, and misleading advice about your rights as the UAW 4811 strike continues. We encourage you not to rely solely on the information conveyed to you by department chairs or other administrative staff.”

The UCLA Faculty Association has been informing staff of its right to respect the picket line and not pick up struck work – work that would otherwise be performed by teaching assistants and researchers. 

Faculty members joined UAW 4811 members on the quad, giving lectures and hosting book discussions. 

The strike has garnered support from United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) and the L.A. Public Defenders Union. Chancellor Block testified before a House committee last week. 

For Friedland, the administration’s response has only sharpened his resolve. “This is a small price to pay. It’s a fraction of the violence that Palestinians are experiencing at the hands of the IDF. It’s a small price to pay to make a better world.”

Photo by the author.