For most of the University of California system, the last week of classes for the spring quarter begins today. But it’s likely to be disrupted on a number of campuses.
A strike by U.A.W. 4811, the largest employee union in the University of California system, that began at one campus on May 20 is expected to expand to three more this week — two of them today.
In all, the union represents 48,000 graduate teaching assistants, researchers and others at 10 U.C. campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Its members voted last month to authorize a strike to protest the university’s response to campus demonstrations over the Israel-Hamas war and what they say are unsafe work conditions and violations of free speech rights.
The first campus the union struck was U.C. Santa Cruz. The work stoppage spread to U.C.L.A. and U.C. Davis last week. This week the union plans to add U.C. San Diego and U.C. Santa Barbara on Monday, and U.C. Irvine on Wednesday, raising the total number of strikers to as many as 31,500.
The growing strike may complicate matters for the more than 169,000 undergraduate students at those six campuses as they wrap up instruction and take final exams. (The remaining campuses are U.C. Riverside and U.C. San Francisco, where classes are still in session, and U.C. Berkeley and U.C. Merced, which are on the semester system and finished in May.)
“How can our campus claim to be a beacon of free speech when those of us who stand in our quad saying ‘Free Palestine’ suffer serious injuries that prevent us from doing our jobs?” Elliot Yu, a U.C. Irvine graduate worker, said in a video posted on social media by the union.