Last week, the University of California (UC) circumvented acceptable labor dispute practices to pause the UAW 4811 unfair labor practice (ULP) strike. The strike was twice allowed to proceed by the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB), the labor body which will ultimately determine the strike’s legality. This extreme approach by the UC is deeply concerning because it undermines labor laws and the right of PERB to adjudicate labor disputes. We should all be concerned when our administration sidesteps best processes and “venue shops” until they find a court likely to decide in their favor. Such repressive, anti-labor tactics are typical of corporations like Starbucks and Amazon, and are shocking from an educational institution claiming to serve the public good.
Repression, Faculty Rights, and Labor
The decision to halt the strike through dubious means unfortunately reflects a broader pattern of repressing speech and labor rights at the UC in recent weeks. Aside from the ULP filed by UAW which led to the union’s strike authorization, UC-AFT, AFSCME, and the UCLA Faculty Association (UCLA-FA) have all filed separate ULPs calling attention to how the university’s heavy-handed response to pro-Palestinian speech, and in particular the Palestine Solidarity Encampment, has spiraled into endangering rights integral to labor at the UC as a whole.
In particular, UCLA-FA’s ULP charges the UC with interfering with faculty’s protected right to advocate and organize regarding matters that impact their workplace– including the safety of students, graduate workers, faculty colleagues, and staff who are exercising their right to free speech.
The ULP further charges that UCOP and UCLA unlawfully interfered with protected rights by adopting overbroad rules in the aftermath of the attacks and police sweep, particularly by: 1) closing campus activities and staffing the university with dozens of security guards between May 6 and May 10, and 2) issuing an overbroad gag rule prohibiting faculty from discussing the UAW strike or any union-related matter with any employee or student on May 16. The full text of the current ULP charge can be found on our website. The UCLA-FA is continuing to document the ongoing erasure of faculty rights on our campus and will assess a potential expansion of the existing Unfair Labor Practice charges.
As UCLAFA Chair Siobhan Braybrook notes, “Faculty have the right to advocate for changes to their working conditions and against unilateral changes to their work process; they have the right to speak out against injustice on their campus; and they should be secure in knowing that their classrooms are not being turned into jail cells.” FA member Bharat Venkat says, “The UC’s actions have materially changed our working conditions, as well as those of our AFT, UAW, and AFSCME colleagues. They have made unilateral decisions that are out of alignment with the principles of democracy and shared governance that have long governed UC. Faculty are noticing and are ready to take action.”
Though the UC has paused the strike by sidestepping the labor board, it is not clear what this will mean for labor already withheld that is integral to calculating final grades.
Faculty should not clean up after the UC
The UC has done nothing to indicate whether faculty will be asked to “pick up the slack,” unilaterally expanding our work duties yet again. Senate faculty have a right under HEERA to not pick up any extra work, and themselves have the right to withhold their labor in protest of recent workplace disruptions. The UCLA-FA is here to help you protect these rights.
In refusing to negotiate with students and workers about their workplace demands, as other schools did, UCLA has made a mess. Faculty should not clean up after the UC.
Instead of bargaining in good faith in its multiple unfair labor practice charges, the UC has chosen to employ yet another newly-opened administrative office to lecture community members about safety. AVC Braziel’s email regarding Monday night’s events highlights the disconnect between the administration and the UCLA community. Braziel’s email is a sleight of hand. It absolves the university of its responsibility in escalating this situation. Speaking of Monday night, he said little of multiple students and grad workers sent to the hospital with severe injuries, the use of less-lethal ammunition (against police department guidelines), or the use of kettling, a practice in which police order dispersal but simultaneously prevent protestors from dispersing in order to create a pretext for arrest. It also failed to discuss what the students set out to do – read the names of all 43,000 human beings killed in Gaza – before dispersing.
This is not the first instance of police violence at UCLA; we would like it to be the last. Sadly, at an institution that increasingly prioritizes funding new administrative offices and expanding security forces over resources for teaching, learning, and research, this is unlikely to be the case. The ongoing securitization of our campus combined with the rapid engagement of riot cops during public demonstration sends a clear message to faculty: your employer sets the limit for what you can protest and who you can freely associate with. We reject this limit.
Join us on Wednesday
On Wednesday, Jun 12, UAW will hold a rally at 11am in front of the Luskin Conference Center. UC-AFT will speak with regards to faculty rights, the TRO, and their unfair labor practice charge. UCLA-FA members will be present in the audience. We invite members of faculty to listen to the two unions that represent our community, and to come speak with us in person. We have a better UC to win.