This week, University of California Police arrested 3 workers on felony charges and confiscated their possessions for allegedly writing messages like 'Living Wage Now' in washable chalk calling on UC to stop underpaying workers. This is an attack on our fundamental democratic rights and the academic worker labor movement at large.
Last December, the University of California (UC) signed historic union contracts with over 48,000 UAW Academic Workers across the state. Since then, UC has not only refused to implement the contracts they signed, but has retaliated against workers’ efforts to enforce our rights.
Over the past six months, UC has failed to implement wage increases, anti-bullying protections, and appointment length provisions. They have dragged out hundreds of grievances, attempted to censor demonstrations, and even failed graduate student workers for their lawful participation in the strike. They are bending university policies wherever possible in order to discipline academic workers. These arrests are the culmination of those attacks–but UC’s attempts to intimidate us will not succeed.
We demand that UC immediately:
Drop all felony charges and any other charges relating to free speech and peaceful protests
Withdraw all outstanding student misconduct charges
Stop all other instances of retaliation for protected union activity
Uphold the Academic Worker union contracts that were agreed to