In an attempt to intimidate workers and prevent us from taking future collective labor action, the UC is retaliating against workers in our union for engaging in protected strike activity. This retaliation is coming in the form of wage theft, threatening written warning letters, and notices of intent to fire workers. If you’re facing retaliation of any kind, fill out this form. Check out this FAQ if you have questions about this repression, and if you don’t find answers there, please reach out via email to santacruz@uc-uaw.org.
In response to this retaliation, workers within and outside of higher education have reached out to offer their support. Here, you can read a selection of the solidarity letters that we’ve received.
Hands off Summer Sullivan! Defend UCSC grad fired for participating in a legal strike
In Spring 2024, thousands of graduate workers at the University of California walked off the job in response to the UC’s brutal and illegal repression of Palestine solidarity protests. UCOP (University of California Office of the President) sent Summer Sullivan a Notice of Intent to Dismiss on August 5, claiming that she had participated in an “unlawful strike” beginning on May 21. However, on May 23 the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) denied the University’s injunction and declared that the strike was not unlawful. PERB reaffirmed this decision on June 4th and issued a complaint against the UC for discrimination, arbitrary changing of policies, and discouraging labor organizing.
Despite PERB having sole authority in determining the legality of strikes in California, the UC shopped for an Orange County judge to circumvent them. Nevertheless, Summer complied with UCOP’s demand to return to work. The letter from the UCOP falsely states that Summer did not return to work after the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on June 8. A letter from her work supervisor, emails from her students, as well as a detailed schedule showing how she spent her hours were all sent to the University as evidence that Summer did return to work after the TRO.
This firing attempt is not only clearly targeted retaliation, but also crystal-clear malpractice: UC has no evidence, is ignoring the demands of the majority of Summer’s department, and has blown past many disciplinary deadlines by a margin of months. Summer is the only UC graduate worker to receive a final notice of termination.
The University is unfairly and unreasonably disciplining Summer Sullivan, who is a great asset to our community. Their allegations are both factually incorrect and spiteful and vindictive in nature, clearly designed to punish and discourage future political speech. We stand by her and demand the University drop disciplinary action against Summer Sullivan.
Sign HERE to demand that the University of California, Santa Cruz; UC Office of the President; and Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer drop their attempt to fire Summer Sullivan for participating in a legal, union-sanctioned strike in Spring 2024. These actions are part of a larger pattern of retaliation against organized labor and repression of political speech by the University.
Update as of August 19, 2024:
Tl;dr If you’ve received a warning letter, report it here, and know that UC is violating our contract and labor law by sending it to you. Come to a campus-wide townhall next Wednesday, August 28th at 5:30pm on Zoom to decide together how we proceed.
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Today, more than 100 workers on our campus received written warning letters from the UC. This is an attempt to illegally discipline workers for participating in the strike and intimidate workers into submitting leave reporting sheets, a form of administrative control we’ve been fighting back against since workers deliberated collectively and decided to boycott the timesheets last fall.
These warning letters, issued to thousands of workers around the state, are a blatant violation of several provisions of our contract and California labor law. There have been several grievances filed for the UC’s various retaliatory actions. If you were not on strike and received a warning letter, please report it here, and we will work to get it rescinded via our expedited process. If you already submitted to the jotform because you were paydocked, there is no need to fill it out again.
As explained in our contract, “A ‘written warning’ is a communication that informs the ASE of the nature of the misconduct or deficiency, the method of correction, and the probable consequence of continued misconduct or deficiency.” A written warning remains on a worker’s file. Besides this, however, it does nothing, except make it possible for UCSC to take discipline in the future. These written warnings are improper discipline (i.e. in violation of our contract), as they fail to meet the rigorous standards of just cause required for any formal discipline. We have already filed a statewide grievance over these warnings, and will fight any future disciplinary actions the University may take.
These mass written warnings are the latest form of post-strike retaliation we’ve seen, amongst attempts to fire workers and illegally dock their pay. A written warning does not mean you are being targeted for firing, or that you will be denied future appointments. It’s critical that we remain calm and that we make well-informed decisions on a collective scale.
We plan to fight back against this collectively, but we need to first get together to discuss which next steps to take. Come to a campus-wide townhall next Wednesday, August 28th at 5:30pm on Zoom to decide together how we proceed.
In the meantime, hold steady – don’t submit your timesheets.