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.
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 If you were not on strike and received a warning letter, please report it here, and we will work to get it rescinded via our expedited process.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.