What’s happening?
If you are currently a tutor or reader, be aware that our union, UAW 4811, is gearing up for a strike over demands in support of a free Palestine that could begin as early as May 15. You can and should participate in this strike.
The strike strategy
The strike will be a protected ULP strike. Our union has filed Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges against the UC after the assaults and arrests of students and workers at UCLA and UC San Diego. These charges give us legal cover to go on a protected strike and withhold our labor from the UC to win divestment from the university’s military investments, amnesty for encampment participants across the state, and the right to free speech and political expression on campus.
The stand up strike
Our union’s leadership has voted on a stand up strike strategy, where the union will call on workers from a specific campus (or campuses) to “stand up” and walk off the job. This strategy keeps the UC guessing, and builds a strike that will grow in power over time.
Strike leverage
The majority of teaching hours across the UC, the vast majority of 1-on-1 student interactions, and almost all grading labor is conducted by academic workers in our union: tutors, readers, and graduate student TAs/instructors. Our collective labor is a crucial point of leverage in the UC’s business as usual. When we squeeze the UC with this leverage, we can win demands that may have once seemed impossible. The UC works because we do.
Authorizing the strike
From May 13-15, all members of UAW 4811 will be voting on the potential strike through a Strike Authorization Vote (SAV). The SAV is a secret ballot that will be sent to all union members via email. All members, including tutors and readers, are eligible to vote in the SAV. It is extremely important to vote YES in the SAV. This sends a clear message to our union leadership that workers across the state are ready to strike. If the SAV achieves a two-thirds majority YES result, the strike will be authorized and all workers should be ready to stand up.
Striking as a tutor or reader
During a protected ULP strike, you are expected to walk off the job and cease all work-related tasks, including: grading, scheduling, individual or group tutoring sessions, tutoring prep, timesheet maintenance, “logistics time,” and meetings with your supervisor.
UAW strike benefits
All striking workers, including tutors and readers, are eligible to receive strike pay from the strike fund of the UAW International at a standard rate of $500 per week for all workers. You will notice that this is more than what the average tutor or reader will make in a week. More details on how to sign up for strike pay will be coming soon.
You cannot be punished for striking
Participation in a ULP strike is legally considered protected union activity under both the U.S. Constitution and California’s Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA). It is against the law for the UC (or your supervisor) to retaliate individually or collectively against ULP strikers. If you are on strike and feel like you are receiving retaliation, contact your union representative immediately. Our union and your fellow academic workers on campus will fight hard against every potential incident of unlawful retaliation.
The strike and the encampments
Following the Columbia University example, the student encampment movement is growing across the country. A strike is aligned with the encampments in the following ways:
- Our strike will demand full amnesty from student discipline and legal charges for all encampment participants across the state
- While the encampment relies on the continuing presence of courageous students in public campus areas, the strike relies on the continuing absence of the labor of workers to apply leverage on the UC’s educational system. These two different kinds of pressure can mesh together to produce a true crisis for the university on multiple fronts
But a strike is also strategically different from an encampment in the following ways:
- Many successful encampments have mobilized between 1-5% of the student population. Any union that tried to strike with 1-5% of its workers would be immediately crushed. Strikes therefore need mass buy-in, not just the participation of the most radical workers
- Several encampments in the UC have already begun negotiating with administrators, but these negotiations are only happening at the campus level. A strike would offer the leverage to force the UC to sit down, negotiate, and concede demands at a statewide level on matters that are beyond the authority of campus administrators, like the UC’s investment portfolio.
Every worker on strike counts. Let’s get ready to stand up for a free Palestine.
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