In a recent report, The Intercept highlighted how faculty from seven University of California campuses came together to file a joint unfair labor practice charge against their employer.

Faculty from seven University of California campuses united, on Thursday, against the repression of protests over the Israeli war on Gaza by filing a joint unfair labor practice charge against their employer.

The professors, representing the prestigious California public university system, stressed that their institutions targeted them for expressing their views on Israeli aggression and for participating in pro-Palestine demonstrations alongside students earlier this spring.

The 581-page labor violation charge, submitted to California’s Public Employment Relations Board, primarily addresses the universities’ responses to the student-led Palestine solidarity protests. In May and June, university officials reportedly called on police to arrest hundreds of students, faculty, and staff involved in the protests.

Reports indicated that police used batons to beat demonstrators, fired rubber bullets and pepper balls, and deployed chemical agents. Following this crackdown, faculty and staff faced various repercussions, including suspensions and firings.

“UC’s actions to suppress speech about Palestine on our campuses, which represents an illegal content-based restriction of faculty rights, sets an alarming precedent,” stated Constance Penley, president of the Council of UC Faculty Associations.

She emphasized that their unfair labor practice filing demands a change in course, urging the university to follow the law and address the harm done to affected faculty.

Anna Markowitz, a member of the UCLA faculty association, remarked that the university’s crackdown aimed to “end Palestine solidarity activism on campus.”

She added, “In this ULP charge, we are saying that this illegal suppression of speech cannot stand, whether about Palestine or about other issues that students and faculty may raise in the future.”

An unfair labor practice charge submitted to the Public Employment Relations Board is a formal allegation of legal violations, prompting an investigation that can lead to a dismissal or a settlement conference. If no agreement is reached, the case is brought before an administrative labor law judge.

The UC system denied the allegations on Thursday, stating that the faculty groups lack standing to file a complaint with the Public Employment Relations Board.

The university claimed it "has allowed — and continues to allow — lawful protesting activities surrounding the conflict in the Middle East. But when protests violate University policy or threaten the safety and security of others, the University has taken lawful action to end impermissible and unlawful behavior.”

Penley, Markowitz, and representatives from the seven campuses—including Los Angeles, Irvine, San Diego, Santa Cruz, Berkeley, Davis, and San Francisco—held a press conference outside a UC regents meeting at UCLA to announce the charges.

Nearby, pro-Palestine students staged a protest against a recent request by UC police for new drones, robots, pepper balls, projectile launchers, and sponge bullets, similar to the weapons used against student and faculty protesters in the spring.

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Thursday’s filing marked just the second time the Council of UC Faculty Associations has submitted a joint charge since its establishment in the early 1970s. The last similar charge was filed in 1993 when faculty protested against the denial of merit raises.

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“This Unfair Labor Practice charge is historic, in that it’s the first time that all the chapters have come together to do a charge around violations of workplace conditions, which involves all the violations of academic freedom, free speech, [and] freedom of assembly,” stated Constance Penley.

The faculty associations’ charge builds on separate complaints submitted by UC employees represented by the United Auto Workers, the University Council-American Federation of Teachers, and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.

Months before the UC encampments emerged last year, following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the universities threatened lecturers with disciplinary action for allegedly violating the school’s policy against the "misuse of the classroom," citing “political indoctrination” as an example. Shortly after, two UCSD lecturers were investigated for potentially breaching this policy by discussing Palestine in their classes.

Another UCSD professor faced scrutiny for supporting graduate students advocating for the needs of Palestinian, Arab, or Muslim students. This professor had emailed administrators to share the graduate students’ concerns and expressed disappointment that the department had not addressed the "genocide in Gaza." In response, UCSD initiated a hostile work environment investigation against the professor.

In Irvine, UCI officials warned a professor of potential disciplinary action for teaching about "Israel" and Palestine in class and altering their syllabus. Administrators indicated that this alleged violation would be kept in a confidential file and that any similar conduct would lead to a formal investigation.

Earlier this year in April at UCSF, a medical school lecturer was banned after discussing health issues faced by Palestinians at a health equity conference. During her 50-minute presentation, she dedicated only six minutes to trauma-informed care for Palestinians amid the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza, while also denouncing "antisemitism".

Despite this, the following month, administrators deemed her speech “biased and antisemitic,” prohibiting her from lecturing at the department that hosted the event. Although the ban was eventually lifted, the recording of her talk was removed from the school’s website.

UC faculty file labor charge over bias against Palestine protests

The labor charge stressed that UC officials have shown bias in favor of "Israel" and its policies. It highlights the university's longstanding opposition to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which advocates for academic and economic boycotts of entities with ties to "Israel" to support Palestinian statehood. This movement has gained significant support among the university's student governments and many faculty members.

The charge cites California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, a member of the UC Board of Regents, who stated during a speech to the pro-"Israel" group Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California, “[W]e have to fight back and educate our students (so they) understand the very importance morally and from a national security standpoint of the existence, celebration, and empowerment of Israel.”

She also expressed concern that students were caught in a “wave of misinformation” and emphasized the need for the UCs to determine how to “go about taking control of our campuses.”

Since the arrests last spring at UCLA, UCSD, UC Irvine, and UC Santa Cruz, the university system has suspended faculty members, denied tenure to some, and fired a lecturer at UCLA. Disciplinary actions are still pending against professors at various campuses, including UCLA.

Thursday’s labor charge seeks to secure back pay and other compensation for faculty and staff who were arrested or suspended during the protests, as well as the reinstatement of UCSF violence prevention advocate Denise Caramagno, who was terminated in August after expressing support for the aforementioned lecturer.

Faculty also aim to negotiate protections against further retaliation and advocate for changes to the university’s new policies, which limit students' ability to protest this academic year.

These restrictions include a ban on encampments, face coverings, and the establishment of so-called free speech zones that significantly reduce where students can demonstrate.

The charge also points to alleged efforts by the UC system to prevent faculty from discussing union activities, including a strike by academic employees represented by UAW Local 4811, who walked out in May in support of the student protests. These restrictions are said to violate the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act, which safeguards employees from retaliation for advocating workplace changes.

Additionally, it claims that the UC system failed to protect students in May when UCLA campus officers stood by as a group of Zionist counter-protesters attacked students at a pro-Palestine encampment, using chemical agents and launching fireworks at them.

“Every Californian should be worried about this threat to the stature of the University of California,” Penley stated. “You can look to Florida and Texas to see what happens when a state university system surrenders on protecting tenure, academic freedom, and free expression. The ramifications go far beyond those targeted.”

Among the restrictive actions implemented by UC was the establishment of “free speech zones,” which confine protests to small, non-contiguous areas of the campuses. The enforcement of these policies remains unclear. On Thursday, a student protest outside UCLA’s Luskin Conference Center, attended by several dozen masked individuals, occurred outside the designated zones. Student organizers reported that the university’s student affairs office had contacted them but did not mention these restrictions.

The group entered the regents meeting and temporarily disrupted the session with chants of “Free Palestine!” and “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.” Reports indicate that the protest continued until officers in riot gear arrived and issued a dispersal warning, prompting the students to leave.