UC graduate strike over, officials say – Pasadena Star News

Teaching assistants, university researchers and other unionized university workers picketed outside the University of California in Irvine, Calif., Wednesday, June 5, 2024. Members of the United Auto Workers union 4811 participated in the strike over what they consider unfair labor practices in relation to recent pro-Palestinian encampments. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The University of California graduates’ strike, which began in May and was the result of administrative responses to pro-Palestinian protests, is over, officials said.

The strike was stopped 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 exams began at some UC schools — the strike affected six campuses, including UC Irvine and UCLA, with more than 30,000 union workers.

Today, officials say the UC system and the UAW have agreed to extend the temporary restraining order through June 30, the date union members initially authorized the strike. The strike is now over, a UC spokesperson said.

Graduate faculty and research assistants at UC campuses across the state authorized the strike in mid-May in response to what they called unfair labor practices by the UC system in connection with the administration’s response to Palestinian solidarity encampments and protests at several UC campuses. The union contends that UC administrators unilaterally enforced unfair labor practices by suspending student workers without proper notice or hearing and, in the case of UC Irvine, interrupting the normal course of business by requiring remote classes after a protest ended with police intervention.

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

The California Public Employment Relations Board, the quasi-judicial administrative agency charged with administering collective bargaining laws covering state employees, continues to review unfair labor practice charges filed by both parties.

The UAW contends the issue should never have gone to Superior Court after PERB twice denied an injunction to end the strike requested by the UC system.

However, the underlying Superior Court lawsuit filed by the UC system over what they say is a breach of contract by the union will continue. The next hearing on that case is scheduled for Nov. 8.