Yesterday #UAW4811 rank and file successfully picketed unionized maintenance and delivery workers trying to work on water damage in #UCLA's Engineering 4 building. Today that building is shut down due to water damage. THAT is how you strike
one of the largest science buildings is now rationing CO2 because we have turned away so many gas deliveries. Maybe the scabs still working will have to stop their experiments anyway
Strikes need to be costly to work. I have a billion thoughts about how academic unions in universities have a differently configured plumbing of labor value than the usual retail/industrial workplaces canonical strike tactics are for, but the delivery picket is proving to be an extremely effective way of engaging with its dispersed work site, heterogeneously administered, many-overlapping-unit conditions. It's a really good balance of legal, accessible, costly, and involving other workers.
#SJP at #UCLA has led a walkout through campus, now occupying Westwood north of Le Conte, one of the main entries to campus, and is holding People's University in the street. Part of a week of planned escalations across from #UAW4811 on strike
@jonny
Regardless of who started it (which is easy for me to say) this sort of split between the grassroots and the formal organisation is harmful to the work for change, and I hope you soon see better coordination between the two halves ❤️
Alongside ten other faculty members, I received a back-channel invitation to discuss campus events with EVCP Hunt.
Today, all of us wrote back to decline his invitation. I appreciate the will to dialogue, but #UCLA should negotiate with student stakeholders, #UAW4811, and #UCAFT. Dialogue should be public and transparent, without coercion.
Today #UAW4811#UCLA rank and file are picketing loading docks again, and have been doing the work to coordinate with sibling unions to respect the picket line - sheetmetal workers local 105 is walking off, and roofer union working on Powell expected to follow shortly. Rank and file is doing the heavy lifting and coming with the strategy.
We are getting pretty dang good at holding the soft picket line, where even lots of nonunion trucks are being turned away or being made to unload from the street and pull in extra labor bc of the perception that they wont be able to pass, even if they were persistent we would let em through bc thats the law after all
"The strikers are demanding amnesty for grad students and other academic workers who were arrested or face discipline for their involvement in the protests, which union leaders say were peaceful except when counter-demonstrators and other instigators were allowed to provoke unrest"
So I knew that cars make you lose your perception of the humanity of others, but I guess I was a little surprised at just how many people were fully ready to ram their car directly into my body as I was walking a picket line. "I will do a vehicular assault to avoid having to walk 10 extra minutes" is peak LA culture.
In better news, nothing has given me life in recent memory like The UAW rank and file organizing caucus. A rowdy rank and file is the beating heart of a union and I am glad for ours
@aud
Hey its what we signed up for ;) only gonna get more hectic so just gotta get more ready. Learned some things as a group today about tactics, so as an educator I count that as a win
One way you can help out with the #UAW4811 strike at #UCLA is to donate to the kitchen committee, which is a mutual aid group (separate from UAW) that distributes food in west LA. They'll be feeding the picket line! - you can donate food, money, or time! Strike fund link forthcoming
"Police arrest man for alleged assault on pro-Palestine encampment"
"Nearly a month after counterprotesters attacked a pro-Palestinian camp at UCLA, police have made their first arrest, detaining an 18-year-old who is not a student.
“During that violence, one individual was seen on video assaulting encampment occupants with a wooden pole, causing serious injuries to at least one victim."