Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Sunday, June 2. I’m your host, Andrew J. Campa. Here’s what you need to know this weekend:
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UC worker strikes are familiar and new in fervor
A typical union strike has a few common, core requests: better pay, robust benefits and safe working conditions.
The current academic worker strikes at UCLA, UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz certainly include traditional elements of a labor stoppage. Yet they also represent a merger of union accusations alleging workplace mistreatment with the goals of the wider pro-Palestinian campus movement.
On-campus chants have including phrasing such as “workers rights under attack,” with that message being tied directly to pro-Palestinian union members arrested and suspended after recent protests.
Traditional signs and marches have included a growing number of protesters waving Palestinian flags and wearing kaffiyehs, the black checked traditional scarves used to express Palestinian solidarity.
These marchers have pressed for demands mirroring those of the students they work with, namely for the University of California to divest its ties to Israel and the war in Gaza and grant all protesters amnesty from campus discipline.
While this merger has pumped new blood into the pro-Palestinian campus movements, it’s widened a gap between workers and administrators over its purpose and legality. Labor experts are split on how the unique demands of United Auto Workers Local 4811 could come to a precedent-setting end.
Who is striking and why
The 48,000-member union includes graduate teaching assistants, researchers and some academic workers who lead discussion groups, grade…