20 California labor unions filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration on behalf of UC students, faculty, and workers on Sept. 16. The unions are challenging the administration’s use of lawsuits and denial of federal funding for the universities.
In the lawsuit, the unions claim that Trump’s intention to cut federal funding for UC campuses is a threat to American free speech and academic freedom. They argue that educational institutions, like the UC system, are necessary in provoking free thought and producing well-educated citizens who work for the overall benefit of the nation. It aims to prevent the use of financial threats in the future and restore funding previously withheld.
“The Trump Administration’s Openly Stated Goal Is to Purge ‘Left’ and ‘Woke’ Viewpoints From University Campuses,” the lawsuit says as one of the allegations. The plaintiffs also alleged that Trump wants to discourage the expression of liberal ideology among students and faculty.
The lawsuit comes as a result of Trump’s threat to withhold almost $17 billion in federal funding unless UC agrees to cooperate with a set of demands from the federal administration. These demands include granting the government access to student and staff data — including admission and hiring information — along with allowing the presence of United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in UC hospitals, restricting gender-affirming care for minors and restricting access to restrooms and locker rooms based on assigned sex at birth.
Leaders of the labor unions argue that these demands are unconstitutional and contradictory to UC’s status as a public institution. In a press release sent to New University, Aimee Baror, communications director of Teamsters Local 2010 labor union, claims that the lawsuits against the UC campuses are “illegal and coercive.”
“Our Union will fight to protect our jobs, our pay and benefits, and our Constitutionally protected free speech rights from all attacks on workers’ rights,” Baror wrote in the press release.
Teamster Local 2010 is a coalition of 20 labor unions that works to protect over 4500 workers across six UC campuses, including UC Irvine.
It was revealed on Aug. 6 by UCLA chancellor Julio Frank that the Trump administration suspended $584 million in federal grants for UCLA in response to the presence of pro-Palestinian protests on the university’s campus, alleging that this created an unsafe and hostile academic environment for students of Jewish and Israeli descent.
The suspension of federal funding followed after UCLA reached a $6 million settlement with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor in July 2025. The plaintiffs claimed that pro-Palestinian protests blocked routes to classes and other campus locations, violating the civil right to a safe academic environment.
The lawsuit was filed on June 5, 2024, and the Trump administration joined the lawsuit in March of 2025 as it opened additional investigations against antisemitism at Columbia University, UC Berkeley, the University of Minnesota, Northwestern University and Portland State University.
In a draft settlement from the Trump administration to UCLA on Aug. 8, the federal government demanded that UCLA pay $1.2 billion to the administration and create a $172 million fund for those impacted by the alleged violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discriminatory employment practices based on race, nationality, religion or sex.
According to the L.A. Times, the settlement proposal also outlines requirements such as restricting the school from admitting students who are “likely to engage in anti-Western, anti-American, or antisemitic disruptions or harassment” as well as prohibiting protests in prominent campus locations like Dickson Plaza and Royce Quad.
Teamsters Local 2010 claims in their press release that if this $1.2 billion is paid to the government, the university will be unable to support the workers and faculty enrolled in the union. As the second-largest employer in California, the UC system is noted as a “critical vehicle for economic mobility for California families.”
UC is not cited as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, but claims to be involved in efforts to maintain and restore its funding across all campuses.
Lauren Durham is a News Staff Writer. She can be reached at durhaml@uci.edu.
Edited by Joshua Gonzales