This resolution was passed at the June 2024 Annual Membership Meeting via Zoom on June 23, 2024.
Resolution: UAW Local 4811 Strike and Injunction
Submitted by Peter Racioppo
On May 20, 2024, UAW 4811 student workers at the University of California went on strike to oppose our employer’s suppression of peaceful protests and free speech on our campus and their police repression and violent attacks on our workers and community members. The university responded by attempting to intimidate our members, filing injunctions and attacking our right to strike in the courts, and sending private security and police against our picket lines.
On June 7, the Orange County Superior Court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against UAW 4811 at the request of the University of California Board of Regents. In effect, the court ordered workers not to strike and prohibited labor withholding and picketing activities until June 27. This court decision circumvented the statewide ruling of California’s Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), which twice struck down the UC’s attempts to declare our strike unlawful. In seeking out one of the most conservative courts in the state to achieve a ruling in their favor, the UC Regents—the unelected board of landlords and real estate moguls appointed by the governor to operate this university like a corporation—have made it clear that they will do anything to undermine our strike and the power of our organized labor. The UC Regents, and the Democratic Party that supports them, maintain close ties to arms production, surveillance, and policing, and they are willing to subvert labor law in order to protect their investments and their power.
This is a calculated attack on the UAW, on our right to strike, and on the rights of workers everywhere. If allowed to stand, the University of California’s decision to circumvent the authority of PERB and subvert California law would set a dangerous precedent for US labor law. Specifically, it would allow employers to undercut the jurisdiction of agencies like PERB and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which were created to uphold labor law and protect workers’ rights. Just as Amazon, Starbucks, and SpaceX attempt to legally challenge the constitutionality of the NLRB as retaliation for their workers’ organizing efforts, the UC attempts to undermine PERB’s authority in order to punish UC graduate student workers for our current strike. This is an attempt by the capitalist class not only to stifle worker organizing but to undermine the infrastructure for enforcing labor law in this country. This is an especially urgent question as the reelection of Trump to the presidency in November would no doubt entail an expanding attack on the NLRB and on labor law, and the suppression of anti-war speech and activism throughout the country.
We propose that the UAWD June membership meeting review the lessons of the 4811 strike and its repression, and launch an education campaign in the UAW on the need to fight these attacks on workers’ rights and on labor law. We further propose that UAWD support a national campaign in defense of UAW 4811, against the political repression of the union, to support the dropping of the charges against all workers and students, and to build support nationally within the UAW and the AFL-CIO for this defense campaign. This shall include a panel of UAW workers organized by the Palestine Solidarity Committee and UAW 4811 members, and an official UAWD statement, to be sent to UAWD’s full email list, posted on our website and social media, and forwarded to the IEB.