UC Academic Workers Vote to Strike in Support of Palestine

The union representing forty-eight thousand graduate students and other academic workers in the University of California [UC] system, announced that it will strike on Monday, May 20. The announcement comes after the union voted to authorize a strike earlier this week with 79 percent approval.

Union leadership called the vote in response to UC campuses’ treatment of students who have been protesting in solidarity with Palestine by setting up encampments on their respective campuses.

Two weeks ago at UCLA, campus police stood by while pro-“Israel” counterprotesters violently attacked the encampment; the next day, police cleared out the encampment, arresting over two hundred protesters — many of whom had been attacked less than twenty-four hours earlier.

On its website, UAW 4811 has called on the university system to “de-escalate” the situating by meeting a number of demands, including amnesty for all students and workers who face disciplinary action or arrest for protesting as well as university divestment from arms contractors and others profiting off of “Israel’s” assault on Gaza.