SANTA CRUZ — More than a thousand academic workers and students at UC Santa Cruz walked out of offices, labs and classrooms Monday in a loud rebuke of the university system’s handling of pro-Palestinian encampments and protests in recent weeks.
The strike was organized by UAW Local 4811, representing about 48,000 academic researchers and teachers across the state and 2,400 at UCSC specifically. The walk out was the first “stand up strike” across the University of California system though more could follow, union representatives said, if its charges of unfair labor practices aren’t resolved.
Rebecca Gross, unit chair of academic student employees at the union’s UCSC location, said picketing at the university entrance on the corner of High Street and Coolidge Drive began at 8 a.m. Monday. The strike could last until June 30, said Gross.
“Down at UCLA, UC San Diego and UC Irvine members of our union … were brutalized by police for just peacefully protesting in solidarity with Palestine and the Palestine encampments we’ve seen spring up across the country,” said Gross, a third-year graduate student worker in UCSC’s literature department. “What we’re seeing now is the fallout of these brutal arrests.”
According to Gross, at least 1,500 workers were expected to strike Monday.
First in the state
The union announced Friday that its members had voted overwhelmingly to authorize its executive board to call a stand up strike in response to what it claims were unfair labor practices employed during the recent clearing of pro-Palestinian protesters and encampments at university campuses.
A stand up strike allows individual campuses to walk out at select locations rather than the union picketing as a whole.
“Over the last two weeks, UC has allowed appalling violence and intimidation against members of our academic community who exercised their right to protest,” Douglas Grion Filho, a graduate student researcher at UCSC, said in the union’s announcement video.
In addition to shedding a light on these alleged labor practice, Gross said the union is also advocating for the protesters to receive amnesty within the legal system and the University of California system, a safe working environment, the right to protest and freedom of speech.
Many of the workers picketing Monday said they were particularly disturbed by the clash at UCLA’s campus where, in late April, counter-demonstrators attacked a pro-Palestinian encampment and unleashed a massive brawl while law enforcement, decked out in riot gear, looked on before intervening after several hours. No arrests were made.
“Myself and others in the union were pretty outraged about that,” said Robin Jones, a member of the union and a teaching assistant in UCSC’s History of Consciousness Department. “We don’t expect everyone to have the same position on, you know, the Middle East or Palestine, but if we can’t speak out on this issue without facing that kind of violence on our campuses then that’s a serious problem for us in terms of being able to speak out on other issues.”
The scene Monday
In response to the union’s labor violation claims, the University of California system filed an unfair labor practice charge of its own against the UAW Friday, saying its actions violate a no-strike provision in its collective bargaining agreements.
“Given UAW’s publicly stated position and the subsequent potential impacts on our students and campuses, we are forced to take decisive action to ensure we can continue to fulfill our fundamental missions of teaching, research and public service,” said Melissa Matella, the University of California’s associate vice president for systemwide labor relations.
“We respect and value a productive working relationship with our labor unions,” Matella continued. “We collaborate regularly to reach mutually beneficial agreements around employment terms. We have and continue to hope that UAW will honor the terms of our contracts.”
In the morning hours, some UAW picketers gathered on the lawn in front of the university’s titular wooden sign while others marched with “on strike” signs back and forth between traffic signals along High Street. The crowd, which swelled as the day went on, mingled over pastries and coffee while music blared in the background.
Around noon, a contingent of more than 50 protesters coming down from a pro-Palestinian encampment formed at Quarry Plaza in early May arrived at the picket and joined in with drums and chanting before blocking traffic from moving up Coolidge Drive.
UCSC spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason told the Sentinel via email that the school’s main entrance at High/Coolidge remained blocked as of about 3:30 p.m. Monday, but the west entrance was open. Classes were switched to remote learning for the day, he added.
“Our primary goal is to minimize the disruptive impact, especially given the many educational and research challenges that have affected students and researchers in recent years,” he wrote.
Many marchers called for an end to the war in Gaza and criticized the Israel government for the high death toll left in the wake of its military campaign.
Israel launched its offensive after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250 hostages. Across the street from Monday’s rally stood at least one counter-protester holding a sign with an image of a hostage that read “kidnapped.”
Since the Oct. 7 attack, Israel’s military has killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Encampment update
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Media liaisons with the encampment who declined to identify themselves told the Sentinel Monday that the encampment had experienced no clashes with police but that talks with the university had stalled. Among the demands made by the encampment is a complete divestment of the University of California’s funds from war.
According to a post from UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive and Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer shared on the university’s website Thursday, school leaders were recently in dialogue with the encampment in hopes of reaching a resolution, but its proposal was rejected and encampment leaders shared on social media that talks were over.
“We remain ready to resume our dialogue with student representatives, and the ideas that we put forth remain on the table,” reads the letter, which called the encampment a “a violation of law and university policy.”
Meanwhile, around 10 a.m. Monday, encampment participants appeared to be dismantling the tents and structures ahead of the march down to UCSC’s main entrance. The media liaison said the encampment was moving but wouldn’t say exactly where it planned to relocate to, though they hinted that they’d be staying near the campus entrance where the union’s rally was held.
“We’re going down there, right, in solidarity with (the union) but they are in solidarity with us,” said the liaison. “Mostly it’s in solidarity with the people of Gaza and them continuously having to move and their struggle of being displaced and living in tents.”
