‘Maximize chaos.’ UC academic workers authorize strike, alleging rights violated during protests

Unionized UC academic workers picket in November 2022. The union representing 48,000 graduate student teaching assistants, researchers and other academic workers across the University of California’s 10 campuses has voted to authorize a strike, alleging that its workers’ rights have been violated at several universities by actions against pro-Palestinian protests, union leaders announced. Rafael Jaime, the union’s co-president and a PhD candidate in UCLA’s English department, said the goal would be to “maximize chaos and confusion” at universities where the union alleges officials have violated workers’ rights over workplace conditions during student protests against the Israel-Hamas war. “In order to de-escalate the situation, UC must substantively engage with the concerns raised by the protesters — which focus on UC’s investments in companies and industries profiting off of the suffering in Gaza.” The vote came after the union filed charges with the state labor board over the arrests of pro-Palestinian graduate student protesters at UCLA and suspensions and other discipline at UC San Diego and UC Irvine. Heather Hansen, a spokeswoman for the UC office of the president, said the union was setting a “dangerous precedent that would introduce non-labor issues into labor agreements.” The disagreement hinges on whether student workers such as Jaime, who was part of pro-Palestinian protests at UCLA the night a violent mob attacked the encampment, are striking over a “workplace issue or political speech,” said John Logan, a professor in the department of labor and employment studies at San Francisco State University.