UC graduates’ strike ends, officials say – Orange County Register

Teaching assistants, academic researchers and other unionized academic staff strike at UC Irvine in Irvine, Calif., on Wednesday, June 5, 2024. Members of United Auto Workers 4811 joined the strike against what they say are unfair labor practices related to recent pro-Palestinian encampments. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The University of California graduate strike, which began in May and resulted from the administration’s response to pro-Palestinian protests, has ended, according to officials.

The strike was halted earlier this month by a temporary restraining order from an Orange County Superior Court judge that was set to expire on Thursday, June 27. When the temporary restraining order was issued on June 7 — just before final exams began at some UC schools — the strike affected six campuses with more than 30,000 unionized workers, including UC Irvine and UCLA.

Now, according to officials, the UC and UAW unions have agreed to extend the injunction until June 30, the date by which union members had originally approved the strike. This will end the strike, a UC spokesman said.

Graduate faculty and research assistants at UC campuses across the state authorized the strike in mid-May in response to what they say are unfair labor practices by the UC system related to the way the administration responded to Palestinian solidarity camps and protests at several UC campuses. The union argues that the UC administration unilaterally used unfair labor practices by suspending student employees without proper notice or hearing and, in the case of UC Irvine, disrupting normal business operations by ordering remote learning after a protest there ended in police deployment.

The UC system filed its own unfair labor practice complaint against the union, saying from the outset that the strike was illegal because it violated a no-strike clause in the collective agreement.

The California Public Employment Relations Board, a quasi-judicial administrative agency responsible for enforcing collective bargaining agreements for state employees, continues to investigate allegations of unfair labor practices raised by both sides.

The UAW argues that the matter should never have been brought to the Supreme Court after the PERB twice denied an injunction to end the strike called for by the UC system.

However, the UC system’s underlying lawsuit in Supreme Court alleging breach of contract by the union will continue, with the next hearing in the case scheduled for November 8.