California academic workers strike in support of pro-Palestinian
protests
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[May 29, 2024]
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Discord from last month's mob attack on
pro-Palestinian student activists encamped at the University of
California, Los Angeles, flared again on Tuesday as academic workers
staged a strike on campus protesting UCLA's response to the violence.
Unionized academic researchers, graduate teaching assistants and
post-doctoral scholars at UCLA walked off the job over what they regard
as unfair labor practices in the university's handling of
pro-Palestinian demonstrations in recent weeks, organizers said.
They were joined by fellow academic workers at two other University of
California campuses - UC Davis near Sacramento, and UC Santa Cruz, where
the protest strike began on May 20.
The strikers are demanding amnesty for grad students and other academic
workers who were arrested or face discipline for their involvement in
the protests, which union leaders say were peaceful except when
counter-demonstrators and other instigators were allowed to provoke
unrest.
The state Public Employee Relations Board ordered the University of
California and the strikers to take part in mediated talks. A
representative for the strikers said the parties met once over the
weekend.
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The strike was organized by the United Auto Workers union Local 4811,
which represents some 48,000 non-tenured academic employees total across
10 University of California campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory.
The UAW local includes about 6,400 academic workers at UCLA, 5,700 at
Davis and about 2,000 at Santa Cruz. A union representative said
thousands were withholding their work as of Monday. Several hundred
attended a march and midday rally on the UCLA campus on Tuesday.
The expanding work stoppage marks the first union-backed protest in
solidarity with the recent wave of student-led demonstrations on dozens
of U.S. campuses against Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip.
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![](../images/052924PIX/news_n31.jpg)
Unionized academic workers, upset about the University of
California's response to pro-Palestinian protests at various
campuses, hold placards as they strike at the University of
California Los Angeles (UCLA) in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May
28, 2024. REUTERS/Mike Blake
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Union leaders said a major impetus for the strike was the arrest of
210 people, including campus-employed grad students, at the scene of
a Palestinian solidarity protest camp torn down by police at UCLA on
May 2.
About 24 hours earlier, on the night of April 30-May 1, masked
assailants armed with sticks and clubs attacked the encampment and
its occupants, sparking a bloody clash that went on for at least
three hours before police moved in.
The university has since reassigned the chief of the campus police
department and opened an investigation into law enforcement's
reaction to the violence.
Last week, three weeks after the melee, campus police announced
their first, and so far only, arrest of someone accused of taking
part in the attack - a man they say was seen in video footage
beating victims with a wooden pole.
Separately on Tuesday in Detroit, Wayne State University suspended
in-person classes and directed staff to work remotely to avoid any
disruptions that might be posed by a pro-Palestinian encampment
there.
U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat of
Palestinian descent, joined those protests on Monday and Tuesday.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by
Omar Younis in Los Angeles and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing
by Aurora Ellis and Michael Perry)
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