The UC system is suing a union leading strikes around California. Here's why

The University of California is suing a union leading strikes at UC campuses across the state, calling the protests over alleged workers' rights violations illegal as they violate a no-strike cause in labor contracts.

It appears to be an unprecedented move for the University.

"As far as we know, this is the first time one of the unions the University of California has contracts with has conducted a full strike during a closed contract with a no-strike clause," Heather Hansen, spokesperson for the UC Office of the President, wrote in an email to KCAL News. "It is also the first time the University has needed to go to state court to protect its right to labor peace under its collective bargaining agreements."

Teaching assistants, researchers and other graduate student workers at UC campuses have been protesting the response by their schools in recent months to demonstrations over the conflict in Gaza. Some universities have called in police from outside the campus, perhaps most notably at UCLA, where Los Angeles Police Department officers dressed in riot gear arrested more than 200 people and dismantled a pro-Palestinian encampment at the campus on May 1. A day earlier, violent clashes had broke out.

Workers with the union now leading a series of strikes across the state, United Auto Workers (UAW) 4811, say their rights to freedom of speech and expression in the workplace have been violated. Some have been among those arrested at protests while others have faced disciplinary action by their schools such as suspensions or bans from campus.

"Today is about putting pressure on the UC to stop the pretty ridiculous and egregious charges that many of our students and UAW members are currently facing," said Savannah Plaskon, a UC Irvine teaching assistant, speaking from a workers' strike at the campus Wednesday. 

"Many of them have been suspended and banned from campus, not just here at UCI but across the various UC campuses," she said.

The union represents 48,000 employees at all 11 campuses within the UC system.

From UC Davis to UC San Diego, 500 miles away, academic workers have been going on strike in a series of so-called "Stand Up" demonstrations that started May 20. They are asking for amnesty for workers who have been arrested while protesting, meaning they won't be convicted, as well no expulsions, suspensions or other disciplinary action by the universities where they work.

But UAW 4811's protests also ask for something else, a chief demand of pro-Palestinian protesters at college campuses nationwide: divestment. As stated on the union's website, the "Stand Up" strikes around California are calling on UC schools divest — or take away their known investments in — "weapons manufacturers, military contractors, and companies profiting from Israel's war on Gaza." The union is also demanding the colleges to disclose all their sources of funding through a publicly available database and allow researchers to opt out of using funding sources "tied to the military or oppression of Palestinians."

The UC system has alleged the strikes are unlawful and that they violate a no-strike clause in union workers' contracts. The University has also countered that the strikes are rooted in political motivations not relevant to labor rights.

It's all led to a back-and-forth legal battle — with complaints to national and state labor officials made on both sides — that escalated to a seemingly unprecedented level this week when the University sued the union.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in state court in Orange County, asks the state to issue a temporary restraining order against UAW 4811 that would put an end to the strike immediately. The 11-campus public university system also says the strikes are disrupting students through canceled classes and delayed grades, doing so at a particularly crucial time as they face upcoming final exams. 

"The breach of contract also endangers life-saving research in hundreds of laboratories across the University and will also cause the University substantial monetary damages," said Melissa Matella, associate vice president for Systemwide Labor Relations at the University, in a statement from the UC Office of the President.   

Of the possible grounds for the University's suit, its claim of financial losses could prove most crucial to its case.

Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Glacier Northwest v. Teamsters decision that an employer can sue a union for damages resulting from a workers' strike. At the time, labor advocates said the ruling would have a chilling effect on workers looking to protest, stripping them of a bargaining tool they have used for decades.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) generally handles situations where the federally protected right to strike has been challenged. But the 2023 SCOTUS decision opened the way for unions to be sued over "foreseeable" damages caused by strikes, bypassing the usual use of a public labor board in deciding the issue by carrying out that decision itself.

UAW 4811 has contended that its strikes at UC campuses are legal. The union has also filed Unfair Labor Practice charges with the NLRB, filing them against the UC for the University's labeling of their protests as "unlawful."

"The Public Employment Relations board has sole authority to determine the legality of a strike, and UC's assertion contradicts decades of settled law," reads a statement on the union's website. "The Supreme Court and subsequent California cases have found that even when a contract has a no strikes clause, it does not waive workers' rights to strike over serious unfair labor practices of the sort UC has committed, and participation in such a strike is protected activity."

"UC's attempt to label the strike as unprotected is an intimidation tactic," the statement continues.

The lawsuit came on the heels of a decision by the California Public Employment Relations Board to decline a request for injunctive relief by the UC, which would have forced a stop to the protests. The union contends the recently filed lawsuit is an attempt "ignore the authority" of the state board in continuing to pursue an end to strikes.

Rafael Jaime, president of UAW 4811, also alleges the University is not taking responsibility for handling protests in a way that protects the safety of students. Last month, the union announced a vote on "Stand Up" strikes a day after what UCLA police have described as a violent attack on a pro-Palestinian encampment at the campus on April 30.   

"UC continues to shirk accountability for the violence it has caused and allowed against union members and the campus community," Jaime said in the statement. "Instead of going around PERB in search of a more favorable decision, UC should respect the law, return to mediation, and resolve their serious unfair labor practices."

"As we have made clear from the beginning, we are standing up against UC's violent crackdown on our right to free speech and peaceful protest embodied in our employment rights," Jaime said in the statement. "UC has caused our coworkers to be maced, beaten, arrested, and barred from work for peacefully demonstrating."