Strike Authorization Vote Announcement
Last night, an armed group of counter-protesters attacked the Palestine Solidarity encampment at UCLA, hitting protesters including members of UAW 4811with sticks, spraying them with bear spray, and pelting them with bottles and fireworks. This comes hours after management at Columbia and City College of New York called in huge groups of riot police to arrest hundreds of student protesters and clear encampments on those campuses. In all these instances, management has employed police violence or allowed violence to be used against students, faculty and academic workers exercising their right to free speech. Our sister union UAW 872, representing academic workers at USC, has already filed Unfair Labor Practice charges against management on their campus over similar failures when LAPD arrested over 90 protesters on that campus.
UC management must change course. At several other universities across the country, management has taken protesters’ demands seriously and begun negotiations with coalitions of students, workers, and community members over their divestment from companies supplying arms to Israel’s war in Gaza. This option is open to UC as well. The use and sanction of violent force to curtail peaceful protest is an attack on free speech and the right to demand change, and the university must sit down with students, unions, and campus organizations to negotiate, rather than escalate.
At an emergency executive board meeting this morning, our union’s leadership voted to hold a strike authorization vote as early as next week to give the Executive Board authority to call a strike if circumstances justify: should the university decide to curtail the right to participate in protected, concerted activity; discriminate against union members or political viewpoints; and create or allow threats to members’ health and safety, among others, UAW 4811 members will take any and all actions necessary to enforce our rights.
Expect more information on the timeline of the vote in the coming days.
In solidarity,
UAW 4811 Executive Board