Largest California Education Union Will Strike Over Protest Crackdown

The largest union of academic workers, which represents more than 48,000 graduate student workers throughout the University of California system, will hold a strike authorization vote as early as next week in response to how universities have cracked down on students’ Gaza protests.

“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,” read an announcement of the strike vote from UAW local 4811.

Earlier this year, the union voted by a margin of more than nine to one in favor of supporting a ceasefire, according to the announcement.

Graduate workers last went on strike in November 2022 over a new union contract; it was the largest strike in US higher education history. They recently merged two UAW locals, 2865 and 5810, under the single UAW local 4811.

“We have been calling on the University of California to de-escalate and negotiate with the protesters over their very urgent and moral concerns and it failed to do that and it failed to protect students and workers and allowed this violence to occur,” Rafael Jaime, co-president of UAW 4811 and a graduate worker at UCLA, said.