SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The union representing UC academic workers across the state of California authorized a strike Wednesday evening in response to law enforcement crackdowns on encampments set up at college campuses in support of Gaza.
After a three-day strike authorization vote, the UAW 4811 announced it had enough votes. 79% of participating members voted in favor. The union represents 48,000 workers across 11 campuses.
Last week, the union held a rally protesting the encampment crackdown at UCSD, saying it violated the workers' rights to free speech.
The vote gives the union's executive board the authority to call a strike at any moment.
However, it would be a "Stand Up Strike," meaning that if circumstances are justified, not all workers would be called to walk off the job. Instead, certain campuses could be called to strike at certain times.
The union says there are 8,000 UAW members at UCSD who need to speak up now so that what happened to break-up encampments doesn’t happen again.
The union says its executive board will evaluate on Friday and announce whether they’ll call the first campus or campuses to strike.
So far, neither UCSD nor the UC System has responded to the strike authorization.
