The National Organization of Legal Services Workers, UAW Local 2320 (NOLSW) proudly stands in solidarity with UAW Local 4811. 

As you may know, students across University of California (UC) campuses, including Local 4811 members, convened campus encampments to protest Israel’s genocidal war on the people of Palestine and the UC system’s failure to acknowledge and address its own complicity in Israel’s 76-year long occupation of Palestine. The students are demanding that their institutions divest from weapons manufacturers, military contractors, and companies profiting from Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian people. Nearly $20 billion of the UC system’s overall assets is invested in weapons manufacturers and other companies targeted by the student protestors. 

UAW 4811 is calling on UC to peacefully negotiate with stakeholders and reach agreement to address these concerns through:

1. Amnesty for all academic employees, students, student groups, faculty, and staff who face disciplinary action or arrest due to protest.
2. Right to free speech and political expression on campus.  
3. Divestment from UC’s known investments in weapons manufacturers, military contractors, and companies profiting from Israel’s war on Gaza. 
4. Disclosure of all funding sources and investments, including contracts, grants, gifts, and investments, through a publicly available, publicly accessible, and up-to-date database.
5. Empower researchers to opt out from funding sources tied to the military or oppression of Palestinians. The UC must provide centralized transitional funding to workers whose funding is tied to the military or foundations that support Palestinian oppression.

We applaud our fellow workers for overwhelmingly authorizing their executive board to call for an Unfair Labor Practice strike if UC persists in committing serious unfair labor practices. As academic student employees, graduate student researchers, academic researchers as well as postdoctoral researchers, Local 4811 members are the backbone of the UC system, and without their labor, the UC institutions would not function. Despite this, the UC administration has compromised the safety of their students, including Local 4811 members, while trampling on their free speech rights by initiating and enabling the violent repression of peaceful student protestors at campuses such as UC Los Angeles, UC San Diego, and UC Irvine.