UAW Announces Strikes Over Pro-Palestinian Protests & Pay
UAW-represented academic workers in California and Washington plan to strike this week.
By Peter List, Editor | May 19, 2024
Only a few weeks before the spring semesters end at college campuses across the United States, academic workers represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW) plan to strike at two universities this week.
At the University of California, Santa Cruz, about 2,000 UAW teaching assistants, tutors, and researchers will walk off the job on Monday.
“The walkout would not last beyond June 30,” Rafael Jaime, the U.A.W. 4811 president told the New York Times. “But it could still seriously complicate coursework for the spring quarter, which ends on June 13.”
On Friday, the University of California filed unfair labor practice charges against the UAW with California’s Public Employment Relations Board, and states that the strike is illegal as it violates the contract between UC and the UAW..
“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, Associate Vice President for Systemwide Labor Relations.
Though the strike at UC Santa Cruz is over the Israel-Palestinian conflict, at Western Washington University, a demonstration by the Western's Arab Student Association, Jewish Voice for Peace, WWU Divest Apartheid Organization and Western Academic Workers United, a UAW local, was held on Friday “in an effort to unionize and bring attention to the campus pro-Palestine encampment.”
Though the UAW intertwined itself with the pro-Palestinian protesters, the WAWU-UAW has also set a strike date for Tuesday after eight months of bargaining with the university to obtain a contract.
Monday and Tuesday’s strike actions in California and Western Washington are scheduled to take place less than a week after UAW-represented academic employees at the University of Washington went on strike and reached a tentative agreement that increased wages and benefits.
The UAW, representing more than 100,000 workers on college campuses across the United States, has been heavily involved in the anti-Israel protests in recent months, with UAW President Shawn Fain condemning the arrests of protesters earlier this month.
