What a perfect opportunity to begin reforming California's higher education establishment — too bad it won't be taken

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Univerity of California - Irvine

48,000 California Student Workers Vote to Strike Due to Protest Crackdowns

The kids voted to authorize their union, United Auto Workers 4811, to strike when they deemed it appropriate. It shouldn't be too long given the crackdowns are continuing on campus. Police removed a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of California-Irvine Wednesday evening.

So why go on strike?

Rafael Jaime, the union’s co-president and a PhD candidate at UCLA, said the goal would be to “maximize chaos and confusion” at the schools that sent in the police to clear the pro-Palestine camps.

“Our members have been beaten, concussed, pepper sprayed, both by counter-protesters and by police forces. As a union, it is our responsibility to stand beside them,” the union said in a statement. “In order to de-escalate the situation, UC must substantively engage with the concerns raised by the protesters — which focus on UC’s investments in companies and industries profiting off of the suffering in Gaza.”

There's only one problem for the student union members: it's illegal for them to strike. The office of the president sent a letter to graduate student workers informing them that there would be severe consequences if they went on strike.

“The University’s position is that the Union’s strike is unlawful, and as a result, a work stoppage is not protected strike activity. This means that participating in the strike does not change, excuse, or modify, an employee’s normal work duties or expectations. And, unlike a protected strike, you could be subject to corrective action for failing to perform your duties,” the unsigned letter from the office of the president said.

Los Angeles Times:

The academic worker strike would be modeled after last year’s “stand up” strikes against Ford, Stellantis and General Motors and similar to recent strikes at Southern California hotels. The walkouts would not target all campuses at once, Jaime said, but one by one based on how receptive administrations are to pro-Palestinian activists.

UC Riverside and UC Berkeley have reached agreements with protesters to end encampments and explore divestment from weapons companies. Leaders at those universities have rejected calls to target Israel specifically or for academic boycotts against exchange programs and partnerships with Israeli universities.

While some Jewish students have supported pro-Palestinian protests, national Jewish groups have criticized the divestment push, saying it is antisemitic because it aims to delegitimize the only predominantly Jewish nation.

Another small problem for the student unionists: they already have a contract.

The strike vote “is not about economics. It’s not about a raise or more benefits. It’s political,” said Jeff Schuhrke, a labor historian who teaches at SUNY.

Among their demands is amnesty for students and faculty members arrested during the unrest. We can assume that means any expulsions would be rescinded and student records expunged.

More on what the baby anti-semites “demand”:
David Duane

The strike authorization vote, which passed with 79 percent support, comes two weeks after dozens of counter-protesters attacked a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, for several hours without police intervention, and without arrests. Officers in riot gear tore down the encampment the next day and arrested more than 200 people.

The vote does not guarantee a strike but rather gives the executive board of the local union, which is part of the United Auto Workers, the ability to call a strike at any time. Eight of the 10 University of California campuses still have a month of instruction left before breaking for summer.

1) Amnesty for all academic employees, students, student groups, faculty, and staff who face disciplinary action or arrest due to protest.

2)Right to free speech and political expression on campus. 

3) Divestment from UC’s known investments in weapons manufacturers, military contractors, and companies profiting from Israel’s war on Gaza. 

4) Disclosure of all funding sources and investments, including contracts, grants, gifts, and investments, through a publicly available, publicly accessible, and up-to-date database. 

5) Empower researchers to opt out from funding sources tied to the military or oppression of Palestinians. The UC must provide centralized transitional funding to workers whose funding is tied to the military or foundations that support Palestinian oppression.

If those demands are not met, then, checks notes, 48,000 antisemitic and/or terrorist-supporting PhD candidates, teaching assistants, and others university employees will...continue the protests in which they've already been engaging. This time, though, their placards will be more professionally mounted to a stick.  

Even with the overwhelming call for a strike by UAW 4811, the larger body of the United Auto Workers are not going to walk off the assembly line, so your Ford five-door electric sedan grossly misnamed the Mustang Mach-E is safe to for you to continue to avoid buying...for now. But if this wing of the union does walk, and no one notices or cares, the rest of the union will have to get involved. Can you imagine selling that strike proposal out of solidarity to a line worker in Michigan or Ohio? 

As for me, I hope they go on strike. I'm pro-union in this case. Walk out. Yeah, I said it. If there's anything this state needs less of, it is 48,000 pretend intellectuals either with phony degrees or working to obtain a phony degree. If the walkout doesn't cause administrators to change course and clean house out of self-preservation, at least it will hasten their collapse. 

And if the larger U.A.W. has to get involved, I'm perfectly fine having the debate about unions now siding with the antisemites. If they do not get involved, and it becomes protracted for this one loony chapter, maybe that can bring about the demise of that particular union. I see nothing but upside to this happening. 

In fact, call for the strike right before the DNC Convention in Chicago. If you're going to strike, you've got to time it so that it has the desired effect. Perhaps the convention center workers in the Windy City can join the strike out of solidarity, and drag the hotel and restaurant workers out on the picket lines with them. 

August is going to be swell. 

“See ya”