Solidarity with University Encampments Across the Country

As the largest union of academic workers in the country, we stand in solidarity with students around the nation exercising their right to protest the ongoing war on Gaza by Israeli forces. We condemn the use of violent force against peaceful protestors at Yale, Columbia, NYU, USC, UT Austin and other institutions demanding that their administrations divest from companies profiting from the war on Gaza. The freedom to assemble and protest are fundamental rights in a democratic society and core to union members’ ability to demand meaningful change. Deploying police forces to arrest and prosecute these individuals is a litigious waste of taxpayer resources designed to intimidate and silence dissent. 

As students across the University of California continue to protest the war on Gaza and begin to mobilize against this latest attempt to curtail freedom of speech on campus, we call on the UC administration to live up to its values of academic freedom, and guarantee the right to peacefully assemble and protest.

– UAW 4811 Executive Board