strike in solidarity with palestine

resources for uaw 4811 members at ucla & beyond

UAW 4811 members voted resoundingly to strike in response to UC’s violent repression of student- and worker-led pro-Palestine, anti-genocide encampments. We share here some resources (frequently updated, newest to older) for striking rank-and-file workers at UCLA and beyond. Until liberation, from the river to the sea!

UC ISSUED A TEMPORARY RESTRAINING ORDER (TRO) ON JUNE 7, 2024: OUR RESPONSE

A letter to UAW 4811 members: We must continue to leverage our labor power to fight for a safe workplace, for divestment from genocide, and for all of our demands. Read our letter here (or find it in your inbox).

Questions about the TRO, its implications, and about our ability to continue agitating until we meet our demands? Read our FAQ on the TRO here.

What is “work to rule,” and how can we use it creatively, strategically, effectively? Read our explainer, chock-full of good ideas, here.

Update 5/20/24: UCLA IS READY TO STAND UP! Read our statement in full here.

The UAW 4811 Joint Council’s strike demands represent an important step toward divestment but fail to address the needs of many UCLA students and workers who have faced sustained legal and extralegal violence on campus. Further, the narrow focus of these demands on Israel’s current war on Gaza effectively normalizes the ongoing occupation of Palestine. At UCLA, rank-and-file UAW 4811 members have collectively and democratically developed a set of expanded strike demands in response to the limitations of the official demands, and in alignment with the demands set out by UCLA Students for Justice in Palestine, the UC Divest coalition, and UCLA Faculty for Justice in Palestine.

The table below compares this expanded set of demands with those of the Join Council. Read more about these demands here.

Expanded strike demands

Strike FAQs

Rank-and-file workers at UCLA have compiled an FAQ to expand on questions fellow may have about a strike authorization vote and a potential strike. We encourage you to read this document in full, and share it with your colleagues and comrades. You can find it here.

Please feel free to share this set of FAQs with your students, who are likely to have questions about the strike.

Undergrad FAQs

Who are we?

Collective action is how we win. Rank and File for a Democratic Union is a group of workers in UAW 4811 (formerly 2865) at UCLA who believe in nourishing the power and growth of our union’s rank and file members. Our vision is one of a union that’s run by an active and involved membership, fighting for our best interests as undergraduate and graduate workers, and that has the courage to hold accountable those who would make decisions for us without us.

In Fall 2022, our union came together in an unprecedented strike, and with thousands of our co-workers, we stepped up to act in solidarity with each other at this scale for the first time. Now as we fight against the UC’s retaliation in implementing our new contract, it’s critical to keep our union connected to membership —beyond mass texts or emails. In order to grow and sustain the kind of mass participation we saw in the strike, we need leadership that reflects our union and gives rank-and-file members agency to shape our union’s long- and short-term directions– from contract enforcement and meeting agendas to our organizing priorities and strategic vision to build labor power at UC.

Democracy and mass organizing go hand-in-hand. We are workers first. Not everyone has the time to be in elected office or to be staff, but every worker should feel empowered to participate in our union. Workers get involved and stay involved when they have a say over decisions. We believe in leadership that centers worker demands and needs, makes points of entry into union organizing accessible and clear, and offers more engagement and support to organizers at the department and lab level.

Union Reform

Contract Demands

Our Slate