UC Irvine workers latest to join rolling strikes over pro-Palestinian protestors

Workers at the University of California, Irvine are on strike over the UC system's response to pro-Palenstian protesters who were arrested or suspended from their campuses. 

Employees at the university, including teaching assistants and tutors, were the latest to walk off the job Wednesday. Last week a group at UCLA went on strike. 

Union members say they are taking part in a rolling strike across multiple UC campuses. According to United Autoworkers, which represents these campuses' employees, more than 31,000 union workers across six campuses are participating in the strike. 

"Today is about putting pressure on the UC system to stop the pretty ridiculous and egregious charges that many of our students and UAW members are currently facing," said Savannah Plaskon, a UCI teaching assistant. "Many of them have been suspended and banned from campus." 

 The University of California, Irvine released a statement that reads: 

The university continues to monitor the situation and has developed continuity plans to minimize the disruption of an unlawful strike on the teaching of our students, research and university operations.

The strike comes on the same day that three Jewish students filed suit against UC Regents and other university officials, alleging in Los Angeles federal court that their civil rights were violated when UCLA allowed "antisemitic activists" to bar them and other students from going to their classes, offices and the library during pro-Palestinian demonstrations in April and May.

In the complaint, two law students and an undergraduate contend that UCLA allowed a group of extremist students and outside agitators to set up an encampment where they stopped Jewish students and faculty from accessing the heart of campus.