UC Academic Workers Union Says New Protest Policies Will Limit Free Speech

The University of California academic workers’ union is demanding that administrators bargain with them over recently announced changes to campus protest policies.

In a directive last week, UC President Michael V. Drake instructed chancellors at all 10 UC campuses to compile all of their protest-related policies, which he said specifically should include bans on the blocking of walkways or doorways, unauthorized structures and masking to conceal one’s identity or intimidate others.

Officials with United Auto Workers Local 4811, representing some 48,000 academic workers, said the policies would limit their ability to exercise their free speech rights within the workplace.

“The law is clear — UC cannot unilaterally change the terms of our employment,” said Max Green, a graduate student researcher at UC Berkeley. “We are demanding that UC come to the bargaining table to negotiate this profound new limit on our ability to exercise our free speech rights within our workplace.”

In a statement, UAW 4811 President Rafael Jaime said the new policies have “a significant and consequential impact on the terms and conditions of employment for members of UAW bargaining units.”

Green and other students have said they believe the new policies are targeting demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza and university investments in companies they say are complicit in that war.

The union officially called for a ceasefire in Gaza last October. In the spring, it filed unfair labor practice charges against the UC over the university’s handling of on-campus pro-Palestinian protests, including the use of police to clear encampments. Those charges were followed by rolling walkout strikes on campuses across the state.

The university sued the union and ultimately won a temporary restraining order to stop the strikes, though Green pointed out that the restraining order expired in late July.

University administrators did not respond to a request for comment.