UCI graduate students and teaching assistants (TAs) organized a rally on May 31. The rally called for university administration to drop charges against students and staff who faced disciplinary action after police dismantlement of the UCI Gaza Solidarity Encampment.
The rally took place the same day United Auto Workers (UAW) announced that UCI UAW 4811 workers will be called upon to join a Stand Up Strike. UAW 4811 workers at UCI will be called to walk off the job on Wednesday, June 5. This follows strikes at UC Santa Cruz, UC Los Angeles and UC Davis. Union members at UC San Diego and UC Santa Barbara will be called upon to strike starting Monday, June 3.
The University of California (UC)-wide Stand Up strike alleges unfair labor practices committed by UC universities in their response to pro-Palestine encampments set up on campuses.
Law enforcement were called to UCI’s campus after protesters from the Gaza Solidarity Encampment moved to “reclaim” the Physical Science Lecture Hall and expanded its borders on May 15. 47 people, including 26 students and two UCI employees, were arrested.
The rally occurred at the UCI Flagpoles, across from UCI Divest protesters who held educational sessions as a part of daily programming, which began on Tuesday, May 28.
According to a post on X by UAW at UCI, before the rally began, participants were given violation notices for the use of amplified sound.
Speakers Mia Villegas, an executive board member of UAW 4811, and Deena, an Orange County Justice for Palestine (OCJP) representative, began the rally with an announcement that UCI will be called to strike on Wednesday. Villegas spoke on the arrests of union members on May 15.
“We know that alongside our community, we will do whatever it takes to make known all of our losses because an injury to one is an injury to all,” Villegas stated to those at the rally.
Deena spoke about the beginnings of OCJP and student leadership at pro-Palestine protests.
“The elected officials, yes, they are elected to office, and they may, you know, represent us by name. But the student leadership and the leadership of the unions are the real leaders,” Deena said in her speech.
Rally participants then began walking and chanting around Aldrich Hall, echoing demands from the UCI Gaza Solidarity Encampment. New University spoke with a UCI graduate student who was arrested during the police raid about their motivations for rallying.
“We were held in jail for, I think, 14 hours. Others, it was more than that,” the graduate student, who requested anonymity, said. “The way the UC has been handling this is kind of why we’re on strike too. I mean, they didn’t have to call on the cops to escalate the situation.”
Rally participants reconvened as Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan spoke to the rally, expressing support for protesters.
“We know we’re doing it peacefully. And we don’t incite violence, but violence is incited upon us,” Khan said to the crowd. “I want you to know you’re not alone when it comes to threats. I’ve been getting threats ever since. But this doesn’t stop.”
The final speaker was Theo Kapogianis, a fourth-year neurobiology graduate student who was arrested by police during the encampment dismantlement. While speaking on his experience with law enforcement and other arrestees, Theo told the crowd that he “witnessed officers mock and demoralize other arrestees,” and that they were asked by police if they were “terrorists or terrorist sympathizers.” He also said that arrested protesters wearing hijabs were, “forced to remove their hijab publicly.”
In an interview with New University, Kapogianis shared his reasons for speaking about his arrest.
“I think it’s important for folks to hear what happened to those of us that were arrested,” Kapogianis said. “Some of our other arrestees were brutalized, have nerve damage, fractured wrist[s], and their religious rights were violated.”
Following UAW’s announcement of the Stand Up strike, the UC filed charges and requested an injunction against UAW for striking on May 17, calling the authorized strike “illegal.” The charges were filed with the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), which denied the injunction on May 23.
On the same day, PERB issued a complaint against UAW for not providing “prior notice to Charging Party [UC] and without having afforded Charging Party [UC] an opportunity to meet and confer over the decision.” Missy Matella, Associate Vice President of the UC System Wide Labor Relations, said that they were “pleased by the expedited action” in the UC Office of the President statement regarding PERB’s complaint.
The morning of May 31, UCI UAW workers received an email from the UCI Office of Academic Personnel saying that workers will not be protected for participating in “unlawful” strikes and could receive “corrective action.”
The anonymous graduate student spoke on the email, saying that it was an attempt to “scare” the workers from striking. The student described the responses of UC to UAW’s recent efforts.
“UC tried to file an injunction saying that we are not allowed to go on strike. PERB, which is the kind of labor legal board, turned it down, which just reaffirms our position that this is a very legally and lawfully protected strike,” the student said to New University. “We have been receiving communications from the school trying to scare us and intimidate us.”
Michelle Kim Gardner, a TA and PhD candidate in political science at UCI, told New University that UCI has no authority to call the strike illegal.
“The UC has committed serious unfair labor practices which have led to this strike. And our strike is for lawful reasons,” Gardner said. “It’s actually against the law for the university to call our strike illegal. They can’t. They are not above the law.”
The rally ended with participants writing messages and drawing with chalk at the flagpole area. Messages demanded for UC to “DROP THE CHARGES” or reiterated pro-Palestine chants such as “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE.”
Skylar Paxton is an Opinion Apprentice. She can be reached at paxtons@uci.edu.
Edited by Beatrice Lee and Jaheem Conley