UAW Local 4811 is the chapter of United Auto Workers labor union representing academic student employees, graduate student researchers, academic researchers as well as postdoctoral researchers from all the 11 campuses of the University of California system. [1] UAW Local 4811 was formed by merging UAW Local 2865 (representing student workers exclusively) and UAW Local 5810 (representing academic employees and postdoctoral researchers) into one combined union in March 2024. [2]
Soon after the creation of the bigger union comprising students, postdoctoral workers and other academic employees (not including ladder rank UC faculty), UAW Local 4811 was called upon to respond and support action by UC student protestors, including students leading the Students for Justice in Palestine protests and encampments at various UC campuses. After the violent attack by non-campus individuals on pro-Palestine student protestors at UCLA and the subsequent police crackdown on May 1 and 2, 2024, UAW Local 4811 issued a statement announcing that it would hold a strike authorization vote in the following week. [3] The union, in its statement, also called for UCLA Chancellor Gene Block to resign immediately given what they called his "failure of leadership". [4]
The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) is the center for oceanography and Earth science based at the University of California, San Diego. Its main campus is located in La Jolla, with additional facilities in Point Loma.
The United Auto Workers (UAW), fully named International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States and southern Ontario, Canada. It was founded as part of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) in the 1930s and grew rapidly from 1936 to the 1950s. The union played a major role in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party under the leadership of Walter Reuther. It was known for gaining high wages and pensions for automotive manufacturing workers, but it was unable to unionize auto plants built by foreign-based car makers in the South after the 1970s, and it went into a steady decline in membership; reasons for this included increased automation, decreased use of labor, mismanagement, movements of manufacturing, and increased globalization. After a successful strike at the Big Three in 2023, the union organized its first foreign plant (VW) in 2024.
The Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC) is a labor union representing graduate teaching and research assistants at New York University (NYU).
The Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions (CGEU) was re-founded as the Coalition of Student Employee Unions (CSEU/CSEE) in 2020 to reflect the broader membership of student employees (rather than the more narrow "graduate employees").
Graduate student employee unionization, or academic student employee unionization, refers to labor unions that represent students who are employed by their college or university to teach classes, conduct research and perform clerical duties. As of 2014, there were at least 33 US graduate employee unions, 18 unrecognized unions in the United States, and 23 graduate employee unions in Canada. By 2019, it is estimated that there were 83,050 unionized student employees in certified bargaining units in the United States. As of 2023, there were at least 156 US graduate student employee unions and 23 graduate student employee unions in Canada.
Gene David Block is an American biologist and academic administrator who has been serving as the current and 6th chancellor of the University of California, Los Angeles since August 2007. Previously at the University of Virginia, Block served as executive vice president and provost from 2001 to 2007, vice president for research and public service from 1998 to 2001, and vice provost for research from 1993 to 1998.
Pradeep Kumar Khosla is an Indian-American computer scientist and university administrator. He is the current chancellor of the University of California, San Diego.
UAW Local 5810 was the labor union representing postdoctoral researchers and academic researchers at the University of California. It is an affiliate of the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) or AFL–CIO. It was merged into UAW Local 4811 in March 2024 when the UAW International Executive Board voted to approve the amalgamation of academic student employees, graduate student researchers and academic researchers and postdoctoral workers into UAW Local 4811. UAW Local 5810 was chartered in 2008. The stand-alone postdoctoral scholar contract and academic researcher contract negotiated between UC and UAW are notable for being the first of their kind in the United States, respectively.
The UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) is an interdisciplinary research unit within the College of Letters & Science, Division of Social Science, dedicated to research, teaching, and discussion of labor and employment issues. It was founded in 1945 as the UCLA Institute of Industrial Relations. It is one of the two research programs in the University of California system along with the UC Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. The IRLE consists of four bodies: the IRLE Academic Unit, UCLA Labor Center, Human Resources Round Table, and the Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program.
Postdoctoral researcher unionization is the formation of labor unions by postdoctoral researchers (postdocs). It has been driven by increasing competition for scarce tenure-track faculty positions, leading to more people residing in postdoctoral positions for a longer time. Unions often challenge the low pay, minimal benefits, and lack of job security that are typical of postdoctoral positions. Unionizing is however sometimes seen as creating a culture clash of tension between postdocs and their academic advisors, and some question the suitability of a union for a temporary position. Some universities seek to avoid pushes for unionization by proactively addressing the concerns of postdoctoral researchers.
The 2020 Santa Cruz graduate students' strike was a wildcat strike launched against the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).
Student Researchers United-UAW (SRU-UAW) was a union representing student researchers at the University of California (UC). It was part of the United Auto Workers. The union was composed of more than 17,000 people who work across 10 UC campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. They were the largest 2021 addition to the UAW, accounting for 0.1% of union members in the US, and, according to organizers, were "the largest academic student employee union in US history." The union later joined UAW 2865 and ceased to be an independent entity.
The 2022 University of California academic workers' strike was a labor strike at all campuses of the University of California (UC) system, including the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. On November 14, some 48,000 academic workers went on strike for better pay and benefits. Led by the United Auto Workers (UAW) labor union, it was the largest strike in the United States in 2022; union organizers describe it as the largest strike in all of U.S. higher education.
Pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses escalated in April 2024, spreading in the United States and other countries, as part of wider Israel–Hamas war protests. The escalation began after mass arrests at the Columbia University campus occupation, led by anti-Zionist groups, in which protesters demanded the university's disinvestment from Israel over its alleged genocide of Palestinians. In the U.S. over 2,950 protesters have been arrested, including faculty members and professors, on over 60 campuses. On May 7, protests spread across Europe with mass arrests in the Netherlands. As of May 12, 20 encampments have also been established in the United Kingdom, and across universities in Australia and Canada. Some protesters have referred to the movement as the "student intifada".
On April 25, 2024, a student protest began at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to protest the administration's investments in Israel. The occupation, self-titled as the 'Palestine Solidarity Encampment', was a part of pro-Palestine protests on university campuses campaigning for divestment from Israel. The encampment was attacked multiple times by counter protestors, leading to clashes. On May 2, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) raided and dismantled the encampment, arresting the protestors and ending the occupation.
The 2024 University of California academic workers' strike is a forthcoming labor strike expected to occur across the University of California's campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The UC Davis pro-Palestinian campus occupation was established by the Davis Popular University for the Liberation of Palestine as part of a nationwide campus activism movement advocating for Palestinian rights and calling for university divestment from Israeli investments due to the ongoing conflicts in Gaza.
On May 15, 2024, a crackdown on a pro-Palestine encampment at University of California, Irvine resulted in an occupation of the UC Irvine Science Building by the protesters. UCI police put out a mutual aid call and received a response from at least 16 law enforcement agencies from around Orange County. Hundreds of officers responded and forty-seven protesters, including students, UCI employees and others were arrested. Student participants were suspended for up to 14 days.