UAW officially ends UC academic staff strike as university works to expand no-strike clause
The strike by tens of thousands of academic staff at the University of California (UC) against the police crackdown on protests against the genocide in the Gaza Strip formally ended on June 30 with the expiration of the strike permit.
At the culmination of a three-week hard fight, the UC Regents – made up of the state’s highest officials, including Governor Gavin Newsom – obtained a temporary restraining order in their favor banning the strike and supporting the UC administration’s argument that the strike was “illegal.”
The United Auto Workers (UAW) bureaucracy dutifully followed this order. They did not want the strike and looked for a way to end it. The bureaucracy modeled its actions on the sham strike that paved the way for mass layoffs in the auto industry. At first, it limited the strikes to a single campus.
Only when a rebellion by rank-and-file members threatened to get out of its control was the union finally forced to call out six of ten campuses and about 30,000 of the 48,000 members of Local 4811.
The UAW had already limited the strike to June 30 in a vote in early May. The academics only learned of this arbitrary deadline when they opened their ballots for strike authorization.
The UAW has not only complied with the temporary restraining order, but has even voluntarily allowed its extension. Last week, the UC President’s office released a statement saying, “Both parties have agreed to an extension of the temporary restraining order (TRO) through June 30. Since the UAW had only authorized the strike through June 30, this extension marks a formal end to the strike.”
This has allowed the UC administration to go on the offensive, working to impose a broader interpretation of the “no-strike clause” contained in the UAW contract, itself a sellout imposed by the bureaucracy on workers after it sold out an earlier strike in 2022.
Missy Matella, UC’s assistant vice president for systemwide employee and labor relations, added to the statement: “While we are relieved that this strike is over, we continue to want clarity that our no-strike clauses are enforceable and that we can rely on our contracts to ensure labor peace during the term of our agreements and support UC’s ability to provide critical academic and research services to our community.”
Although the contract contains blanket bans on strikes, the argument that this includes strikes against “unfair labor practices” such as the UC’s retaliation against academic staff for political speech is completely false. Nevertheless, the UC’s argument is currently being reviewed by the state’s Public Employment Relations Board. If the board sides with the UC, it would be a serious attack on the fundamental right to strike in California and throughout the United States.
The decision to extend the injunction exposes the bureaucracy as a tool not only of the UC administration, but also of the courts and the pro-war political establishment.
UAW Chairman Shawn Fain is a surrogate for “Genocide Joe” Biden, who was elected to office two years ago in a sham election with only 9 percent turnout. He is one of the most prominent campaigners for this senile warmonger, whose re-election campaign is on the verge of collapse. The UAW bureaucracy has regularly protected Biden from pro-Palestinian protests, for example, ejecting protesters during Biden’s speech accepting the UAW’s endorsement and later when it worked with riot police to protect Biden from protests during a trip to Detroit.
Meanwhile, the union bureaucracy in the UAW, as well as the Teamsters and other major unions, are enforcing the government’s mass layoff policies by enforcing sell-out contracts and preventing strikes. The White House sees the unions as key to enforcing “industrial peace” at home while preparing to launch even more criminal wars abroad.
However, there are significant cracks in this corporatist policy, most notably the deep crisis of the Biden administration itself and the real possibility that Biden could be forced to withdraw as the Democratic nominee due to concerns about his physical and mental fitness for the office.
A similar crisis has erupted in the UAW. Shawn Fain is under investigation by a federal agency on corruption charges. A judge recently sided with Will Lehman, a socialist autoworker who ran against Fain for president. Lehman had filed a lawsuit against the massive suppression of voter turnout in the union elections.
On Friday, the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees called for new elections in the UAW, which would be monitored by union members. “The exposure of election fraud, coupled with the ongoing sell-out of workers’ interests and corruption, make an irrefutable argument for holding new elections in the UAW,” the statement said. “But workers cannot rely on the Labor Department, the UAW Supervisor or the courts to defend their rights. If truly democratic elections are to take place, workers must fight for them and monitor them.”
Despite the ruthlessness of the government and the betrayal of the bureaucracy, the struggle against war will only grow stronger. The workers must learn the lessons of this strategic experience.
As the WSWS wrote at the end of the UC strike, “The most important lesson of the University of California strike is that the working class must become the central force against the war.” This cannot happen without first “dealing with the pro-capitalist, pro-war political system and the union bureaucracy that defends it.”
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