On May 13–15, UAW 4811 members will vote on whether to strike in response to UC’s violent repression of student- and worker-led pro-Palestine, anti-genocide encampments. The Joint Council of our union has adopted strike demands, which represent an important step toward divestment. These demands, however, fail to address the needs of many UCLA students and workers who have faced sustained legal and extralegal violence on campus, and they present a narrow approach to divestment that focuses on Israel’s current war on Gaza, effectively normalizing the ongoing occupation of Palestine. We have collectively and democratically developed the expanded UCLA strike demands below in response to these limitations, in alignment with the demands set out by UCLA Students for Justice in Palestine, the UC Divest coalition, and UCLA Faculty for Justice in Palestine.
Concerningly, UAW 4811 leadership has already made clear, even before our strike authorization vote (SAV), that they see this strike as an opportunity to “de-escalate” and coopt our movement energies—to cede our leverage in the fight for true divestment and cops off campus so that university business as usual can resume. Nonetheless, we urge all UAW 4811 members to organize toward a YES vote in our SAV on May 13–15.
