The Academic Proletariat Goes on Strike at the University of California

Workers of the faculty world unite in solidarity with anti-Israel protesters

WSJ editorial. 

"Managers often get the labor unions they deserve. The University of California is proving this adage as its teaching assistants and the academic proletariat represented by the United Auto Workers are striking in solidarity with anti-Israel protesters. 

The UC system took the unusual step Wednesday of suing the UAW in state court for violating their labor agreement’s no-strike provision. The UAW’s 48,000 or so academic worker members are refusing to teach undergraduate classes and perform other jobs.

The wildcat strike is a show of ideological loyalty to students demonstrating against Israel. The union’s demands include university divestment from “companies and industries profiting off of the suffering in Gaza.” UC’s lawsuit says the union also wants “amnesty for all individuals who face disciplinary action or arrest” because of their illegal campus encampments, and “allowing researchers to opt out from funding sources tied to certain causes.”

UAW local union president Rafael Jaime, an English grad student at UCLA, declared that the union goal is to “maximize chaos and confusion for the employer.” It’s succeeding. Teaching assistants have canceled undergrad sections without telling the university. UC faculty have refused to perform the work of their striking assistants, perhaps because they support their anti-Israel objectives.

The UAW plans to expand its strike during finals, which means that papers and exams might not be graded. The UC lawsuit says this could affect student eligibility for financial aid. In its request for injunctive relief, UC says the strike is causing “irreparable harm” to the “educational experience and academic progress of its students.”

What does the union care? UAW members are also blocking access to university buildings, including hospitals and childcare centers. Picketers have barricaded themselves in buildings at UCLA. This is what the university gets for admitting grad students who care more about leftwing activism than learning.

The university’s website asks grad-school applicants to explain how their “experiences have deepened your understanding of the barriers facing ethnic minorities, women, and others underrepresented in higher education.” They must also highlight research they’ve done on “issues of race, gender, equity and inclusion.” Non-leftists need not apply.

This is also what happens when employers surrender to a union’s excessive demands in hopes of buying labor peace. UC settled a UAW strike in 2022 by agreeing to raise the minimum pay for student employees to $34,000 from $23,250—for nine months of part-time work. Many assistants now earn more on an hourly basis than adjunct professors.

UC says it agreed to the UAW’s demands to “achieve labor peace.” So much for that. As a result of the UC’s increasing labor costs, undergrads and their parents will have to pay more for tuition. Yet now they are receiving less education.

Gov. Gavin Newsom could stop the strike, but he’d have to take on his labor friends. UC asked the state Public Employment Relations Board—run by Mr. Newsom’s appointees—to end it. The board refused. Californians can thank the progressive leaders they elect."