It’s a critical time of year for UC academic workers, with finals underway and the fate of the ongoing strike likely to be decided Friday morning in an Orange County courthouse.
University of California officials twice failed to ask the state Public Employment Relations Board to halt the UAW Local 4811 union strike, which began nearly three weeks ago at UC Santa Cruz and has spread to campuses including UCLA and Six campuses including the University of California, Irvine.
The university is currently filing a lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court seeking an emergency order to stop the third strike. The UC lawsuit alleges the union violated a “no-strike” clause in its contract by going on strike because of violations of workers’ free speech rights during pro-Palestinian protests. The university argued in court documents that the strike caused “irreparable harm” to operations, including the cancellation of classes.
The University of California argued that the strike was for political purposes rather than employment conditions and labor-related issues. In court documents, UC cited the example of a union member urging his department to vote in favor of a strike, saying: “[T]The most important demand here is divestment. This is about Palestine first and our ability to work comfortably at UC second.
Melissa Matella, UC’s vice president for systemwide labor relations, said in a statement that the strike “will continue to cause irreversible harm to the university as it will disrupt the education of thousands of students.” ”. She added that the strike “jeopardizes life-saving research in hundreds of university labs and will cost the university huge amounts of money.”
A UC Irvine employment and labor law professor called the University of California’s decision to file a lawsuit in state court a “brazen” move, saying the university may sue in Orange County because judges there are more harsh on employers in labor disputes. friendly.
“It’s not that they obviously don’t have the right to go to the High Court,” said professor Veena Dubal. “This is a legal issue for the courts to decide. But it’s pretty shameless because they left just because they didn’t like the outcome of PERB, which is the agency that actually deals with these issues.
The union, which represents 48,000 workers across 10 campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, insists the strike is legal and has nothing to do with its contracts because it touches on a wide range of workers’ rights and has allegedly included arrests during the university’s actions against pro-Palestinian protesters. and academic activities that violate workers’ rights.
The union represents graduate teaching assistants, researchers and other academic workers who lead discussion groups, grade papers, conduct research and administer exams. The group sanctioned the strike last month, claiming its members’ free speech rights were compromised during the crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests at UCLA, UC San Diego and UC Irvine, where they were charged. It also cited workers at a UCLA camp who were harmed when a mob attacked them on April 30 without police intervention.
The union filed an unfair labor practice charge with PERB in response to these allegations. The University of California has filed a complaint with the Board of Regents, saying the strike is illegal.
The labor board rejected two of UC’s requests for an injunction, ruling that the university had not met the legal threshold to stop the strike while mediation over allegations by both parties continues.
UC officials and the union declined to say exactly how many classes, discussion groups or other efforts led by union members were affected by the campus strike.
Friday’s hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the Civil Complex Center in Santa Ana before Orange County Superior Court Judge William D. Claster.
On Thursday night, the union asked that the case be assigned to a different judge, claiming that Krast was “biased against the interests of the defendants or their attorneys or the defendants or their attorneys.” The union was “unable to conduct a fair and impartial trial or hearing,” the document said. If the request is granted, the hearing judge, date, and time may vary. As of late Thursday night, a new judge had not yet been appointed.
The judge’s ruling does not resolve the question of whether the strike constituted an illegal breach of contract. The labor board has been considering the issue for a long time and said in Thursday’s filing that it would be inappropriate for the university to ask a state court to consider the same issue.
The labor board has requested to become a party to the Orange County case, arguing that it has “exclusive preliminary jurisdiction over all aspects of this dispute.”
“A ruling or judgment by a court without the participation of PERB may impair or impede PERB’s ability to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over the legality of a subject labor strike under the Labor Act. [the Higher Education Employee Relations Act] If unfair practices are found, determine appropriate remedies,” lawyers for the labor board said in their filing.
In a statement Monday, UAW Local 4811 President Rafael Jaime called on “UC to face reality” and accused it of “legal intimidation” following the labor council’s recent decision against the university system.
Jamie, a doctoral student in literature at UCLA, said UC officials should “stop wasting time and public resources on legal maneuvers.” He said filing the lawsuit in state court means UC “has decided to ignore the authority of the labor board” and “continues to insist that these rules do not apply to it.”
