Dear Colleagues,
We write to share information with you about the possibility of an upcoming strike by UAW, and to remind everyone of faculty rights in the event of such a strike.
48,000 employees at the University of California represented by UAW 4811 will be voting to authorize an Unfair Labor Practice strike action from May 13-15. We don’t know the outcome of the vote yet, but we wanted to provide UC faculty information in case these workers do choose to go out on strike.
These FAQ provide information for UC Senate faculty. Unit 18 faculty should seek guidance from their union (UC-AFT).
Q1: Why are UAW members voting on strike authorization?
On the night of May 1-May 2, LAPD police in riot gear arrested more than 200 peaceful student protesters and academic workers exercising their legal right to protest the war in Gaza. Many of those arrested had spent the previous night seeking medical care after being physically attacked and maced by a group of anti-Palestinian counter-protesters. Though UCLA and LAPD were on notice of the attacks, they failed to respond. In response, UAW 4811 has filed Unfair Labor Practice charges against UCLA arising from the Administration’s conduct and actions taken at their request. Since then UCSD has also used police force and arrests to shut down the encampment on their campus.
UAW members are voting on a strike authorization because of the unfair labor practices committed by the University of California against employees represented by UAW Local 4811 who participated in the non-violent political protests on campus.
While there are more unfair labor practice charges forthcoming, the current unfair labor practice charges include:
- Actively risking the health and safety of UAW 4811 members and members of the university community by allowing violent attacks on peaceful pro-Palestine protesters, both by violent anti-Palestine agitators and by police.
- Making unilateral changes to working conditions that have impacted teaching, work obligations, safety and academic freedom
- Summoning the police to forcibly eject and arrest UAW Local 4811 members in retaliation for those employees engaging in peaceful protest activity demanding work-place related changes.
- Disciplining employees for engaging in peaceful protest activity demanding workplace-related changes.
Q2: What are the academic workers’ demands?
Details are available here and here. The demands are as follows:
- Amnesty for all academic employees, students, student groups, faculty, and staff who face disciplinary action or arrest due to protest.
- Right to free speech and political expression on campus
- Divestment from UC’s known investments in weapons manufacturers, military contractors, and companies profiting from Israel’s war on Palestine
- Disclosure of all funding sources and investments, including contracts, grants, gifts, and investments, through a publicly available, publicly accessible, and up-to-date database
- Empower researchers to opt out of funding sources tied to the military or oppression of Palestinians. The UC must provide the option for centralized transitional funding to workers whose funding is tied to the military or foundations that support Palestinian oppression.
Q3: What does a strike mean?
A: There are at least several stages before we have more information about whether academic workers represented by UAW will strike or what this strike will look like: 1) The strike authorization vote will open May 13 and close on the morning of May 15. 2) *If* two thirds of voting members vote yes to strike, the UAW 4811 statewide Executive Board will be authorized to call a strike, if a satisfactory resolution is not negotiated between the union and the University. 3) The strike may take the form of a rolling strike, taking place on different campuses at different times. At this point, we do not know if there will be a strike, when and where it will begin, or how long a strike might be. We will update the response to this question as new information comes to light.
Academic workers who choose to go on strike will stop all paid work for the university.
Q4: What does it mean that the UC is calling this strike “unlawful”? Is the strike a legal and protected strike or not?
This is an Unfair Labor Practice strike authorized by the UAW through a strike vote. The university may argue that such a strike is “unlawful” because it is a violation of the no strikes clause in the UAW contract. However, the determination of whether this strike violates the contract will be made by the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB), not the university. According to PERB case law, severe unfair labor practices can justify an unfair labor practice strike even when a no strikes clause is present in a contract. At this time, we can not know what PERB will decide, but academic workers engaged in a lawful ULP strike are protected from being terminated or disciplined for participating in the strike, and faculty must respect their right to strike.
HEERA independently protects two types of decisions by other workers during a strike at their workplace: 1) To decline to do struck work when doing that work is outside of past customary practice; and 2) To respect a picket line.
Q5: If a strike happens, do I need to volunteer to perform the labor of Postdocs, Researchers, TAs, and GSIs who are on strike, such as teaching their classes or sections or doing their assigned grading?
A: No. Under HEERA, faculty can decline to perform struck work that is outside our customary duties. One of the most important ways we can be in solidarity with striking workers is to not diminish the impact of their absence by volunteering to do the work they are withholding.
You may receive messages from the university telling you that it is your responsibility to ensure the continuity of education for your students. Such messages do not mean you have to volunteer to do the work of strikers that is not part of your normal work duties. If you are asked to fulfill responsibilities that depend on the missing labor, you should ask if you are being required to do this work, ask how you will be compensated for this additional labor, and contact CUCFA.
Q6: What does respecting a picket line mean?
A: Respecting a picket line (also referred to as “honoring a picket line” or “not crossing a picket line”) is sometimes used as a general term to describe supporting a strike or not entering a location where a strike is happening. However, when there is a strike at one’s own workplace, it specifically describes individual employees acting on their conscience and withholding their own labor in solidarity with striking workers. In this case, that means not doing work on behalf of the university. We understand this to include, but not be limited to, teaching classes, grading, and submitting grades. Respecting a picket line is not the same as engaging directly in the strike, but it shows your support for the picketing workers, their union, and, in this case, it can also be a way to express your concern about the unfair labor practices of the UC and their negative impact on your own working conditions. Some faculty may decide to respect the picket line in order to put pressure on the administration to address the unfair practices and therefore help end the strike in a timely fashion. .
Respecting a picket line (withholding one’s own labor) is not the same as declining to pick up struck labor (see Q5). Faculty have protected rights to both of these actions, but they should be understood as distinct, with different potential obligations and consequences.
Q7: Do I have a right to respect a picket line in general and the UAW picket line in particular?
A: Yes. All university employees covered under HEERA, including Senate faculty, even department chairs or heads of similar academic units or programs, are generally non-managerial and also have the right to respect a picket line established by other university employees. Senate faculty are not subject to a no strikes clause and so maintain their right to honor a picket line. University employees also have individual free speech rights that provide additional protections.
The UC may try to claim that if the UAW strike is determined to be unlawful, these protections may not apply, but PERB has not found that an employer can discipline workers who are honoring a picket line with other workers who are engaged in an unprotected strike.
You may start honoring the picket line at any point during the strike. However, if you choose to respect the picket line but then decide to return to work, you should only honor the picket line again if the UAW strikes over a new issue. You may always show your solidarity in other ways, including declining to pick up struck labor and being present at the picket during your personal time.
Q8: I’ve heard faculty who currently work with TAs or GSRs can’t honor the picket line because they are supervisors. Is this the case?
A: No. Senate faculty have some supervisory responsibilities regarding TAs, GSRs, and other workers, which require that we not ask them about their plans for the strike. However, our supervisory responsibilities regarding Teaching Assistants and researchers do not cancel out our rights to honor a picket line. For more details on this, see this analysis by UC legal scholars.
Q9: Isn’t respecting the picket line a violation of the Faculty Code of Conduct?
A: No, CUCFA does not understand the Faculty Code of Conduct as prohibiting conduct protected under HEERA, including respecting a picket line. Our HEERA rights to not pick up struck labor and to honor a picket line, enshrined in state law, have precedence over UC policies including the Faculty Code of Conduct and Regents Policy 2301. Moreover, the Faculty Code of Conduct itself contains multiple provisions that may protect faculty, including its recognition of faculty rights to free expression, protections for “ethical” behavior, and treating faculty conduct as unacceptable only if it lacks “legitimate reason” or is “unexcused.” Disciplinary procedures would also have to go through the appropriate Senate channels which act as an oversight and a brake on arbitrary disciplinary actions.
Q10: What might be the consequences of respecting the UAW picket line?
A: The university may choose to withhold the pay of Senate faculty for their time respecting UAW’s picket line. It would, however, be unlawful for the university to dock additional pay or take other disciplinary action against faculty for exercising their protected rights.
Q11: Do I need to tell someone if I am choosing to respect the picket line?
A: You are under no legal obligation to affirmatively notify the university if you are respecting the picket line. If you want to make clear that you will be doing so, you could choose to inform your department chair, although again this is not required. If you are asked whether you will be honoring the picket line, you are not obligated to respond, but if you decide to answer, you should respond truthfully.
Q12: Other than respecting the picket line, how else can Senate faculty show support for the strikers?
- Not volunteer to pick up struck labor (discussed in Q5 above)
- Be present at the picket line and rallies.
- Communicate with your TAs, Postdocs, and Student Researchers, making it clear that you will accommodate their participation in the strike but do not monitor or ask them about their strike activity.
- Sign this non-retaliation pledge.
- We will provide more information on ways to support the strike when it becomes available.
Q13: Is it fair to undergraduate students when faculty respect a picket line?
A: When faculty respect a picket line, we demonstrate in very concrete terms that we are unwilling to accept the conditions that have led academic workers at UC to vote for a strike in the first place. We do this precisely because we care about our students, the conditions of their learning, and their rights to participate in protest.
Q14A: What am I supposed to do about graduate student timesheets? (for all campuses except UCSC)
A:. Practices with regard to timesheets and tracking of absences have varied widely from campus to campus. We do not think that faculty instructors of record nor PIs should be responsible for the daily tracking of others’ work, for ensuring that other workers submit timesheets, or for affirmatively reporting on their presence/absence when they do not submit timesheets. If in advance of this potential strike faculty had not previously asked workers whether they would be working on future dates , asking about this in the light of such a strike could constitute a violation of those workers’ rights. In general, we recommend that faculty not take on any new or additional labor in relation to either the tracking or reporting of employee absences.
Q14B: What am I supposed to do about graduate student timesheets? (for UCSC)
A: SCFA and the administration do not currently have a shared understanding regarding faculty responsibilities in relation to these timesheets. We do not think that faculty instructors of record nor PIs should be responsible for the daily tracking of others’ work, for ensuring that other workers submit timesheets, or for affirmatively reporting on their presence/absence when they do not submit timesheets as these tasks would be both incredibly difficult if not impossible and would be a significant increase in labor beyond the original request that we confirm the accuracy of reported leaves. SCFA has asked to bargain with the administration on this issue. If in advance of this potential strike faculty had not previously asked workers whether they would be working on future dates, asking about this in the light of such a strike could constitute a violation of those workers’ rights. In general, we recommend that faculty only review and approve those timesheets that are submitted to them and that faculty do not take on any new or additional labor in relation to either the tracking or reporting of employee absences.
GRADING
Q15: I am teaching a class with assignments that are ungraded due to the strike. Do I need to volunteer to do the grading?
A: No. Under HEERA, faculty do not need to volunteer to perform struck work that is outside our customary duties. The longstanding practice for courses with assigned ASEs is for them to grade course assignments, proctor exams, and maintain the records of student grades. This is routinely documented in their Description of Duties.
If you are asked to do this grading, you may respond by declining the extra work and communicating that you do not wish to volunteer to take up the struck labor. If it is unclear if the message is a suggestion or a directive, you can and should ask if you are REQUIRED to do this work. If your department chair or Dean insists that you must perform the additional struck work, you have the right under HEERA to refuse. If you do not feel comfortable doing so, you can state that you are performing the work under protest. You should document all new duties, dates, and time required to perform the work, any agreement on mitigation of the increase in work, how you will be compensated for this increased work, and any objections you have, including your physical and mental ability to complete the work. A template response for this email can be found here. Additionally, you can cc info@cucfa.org or contact your campus Faculty Association, and we can facilitate communication with the appropriate Academic Senate committee or office on your campus.
Q16: I am teaching a class with assignments that are ungraded due to the strike. Should I just grade students based on their previously graded assignments or assign all students an A?
A: No. In this situation, issuing grades based only on some assignments or without necessary input from ASEs would not be fair to students. For example, it is impossible for instructors to grade students for participation in ASE-led sections when the instructors did not observe those sections. Furthermore, it would disadvantage some students to arbitrarily discard the section participation part of the course grade. Giving all students A’s might appear to be a more equitable solution, but it would undermine the legitimacy of the grades, UC transcripts, and the educational mission of the university. It is our professional responsibility as faculty to ensure that students are graded fairly and accurately. Additionally, this would be taking up struck labor and undermining the impact of the strike.
Q17: I have ASEs who I expected to do the grading. Can the university discipline me for not providing grades in these courses?
A: HEERA protects the rights of faculty to choose not to volunteer to perform struck work that is not normally part of their required duties, as we said above. The University would be wrong to discipline faculty in this instance. The Faculty Code of Conduct also acknowledges that some circumstances may excuse a delay in grading when it names “undue and unexcused delay in evaluating student work” as unacceptable conduct (APM-015.II.A.1e). Any disciplinary action would also have to go through appropriate Senate channels, which act as an oversight and a brake on arbitrary disciplinary actions for Senate faculty.
Q18: Won’t missing grades harm our undergraduate students?
A: Submitting grades without a complete understanding of undergraduate students’ work would be harmful to them. Our undergraduate students are better off with ASEs participating in their grading.
The UC administration is responsible for resolving the strike by ending its unfair labor practices. In addition, each campus administration is responsible for working with the necessary units (Financial Aid, Registrar’s Office, etc.) to ensure that undergraduate students are not harmed by the missing grades.
These missing grades will be submitted once the strike is over.
Q19: Who will be responsible for the grading when the strike is resolved?
A: If a settlement is reached before the end of the current quarter/semester, your existing ASE may be able to complete the grading, but only if it fits within their contractual workload limits. If a resolution is not reached until the next quarter/semester, an agreement about grading may be part of the settlement between UC and UAW. If not, then departments will need to hire ASEs on new contracts to complete that work. CUCFA advocates for this additional labor to be centrally funded rather than a departmental responsibility.
Q20: Can I submit P/NP grades on campuses where that option exists for students and where they had done enough to pass the class before the strike started without picking up struck work?
A: The option to provide P/NP grades on some campuses does not alter the fact that the calculation of a passing grade is ordinarily work performed by ASEs, so it remains struck work.
Q21: If all the labor of calculating grades was already completed before the strike, or my ASE was not on strike and has graded all work, should I submit grades?
A: In this case, you should submit grades unless you have chosen to honor the picket line and withhold your labor from the university.
Q22: Can I volunteer to perform some of my ASE’s grading work for students with exceptional circumstances and still maintain my HEERA protections?
A: Faculty who are refusing to perform struck work could volunteer to do some small amount of struck work to provide grades to individuals with exceptional circumstances. This should be done sparingly and may not be necessary (campuses should make contingency plans for impacted students).
Q23: What should I do if I feel intimidated by the administration’s statements about UAW’s strike?
A: The best defense against intimidation is knowledge of your rights. And importantly, your Faculty Association is here for you. Please contact your campus Faculty Association or CUCFA if you or your colleagues feel intimidated.