Conflict Within UAW Grad TA Union at UC Over Israel Boycott Resolution

History Lesson: Isn't California the home of "settler-colonialism"?

Boycott California?

Inside Higher Ed carries a report on the union representing graduate teaching assistants and its internal debate over an Israel boycott:

United Automobile Workers 2865 represents 13,000 graduate student workers – mostly teaching assistants – across nine University of California campuses. And while the union is no stranger to political activity – it advocates for the rights of undocumented students, for example – it focuses on and has won advances on student worker employment and quality of life issues, such as paid parental leave, class size and pay. So it’s perhaps unsurprising that a planned December vote on whether the union will join the academic boycott against Israel has some members concerned...

Opponents within the California graduate student union say the boycott goes against a previously stated UAW position on the Israel boycott, is anti-academic, and would ultimately hurt the California graduate student union and others like it. Proponents, meanwhile, say that joining the boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) movement against Israel is a moral and intellectual obligation...

The 80-some member joint council of the graduate student worker union announced its support for the academic boycott this summer, saying a union-wide vote was forthcoming...

(S)ome union members say there was little tolerance for dissenting opinion at the meeting. Two separate proposed statements – one supporting a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine and one saying Israel has the right to self-determination – were voted down. Another proposal to extend the boycott to other countries accused of human rights violations, including China, was tabled...

Karra Greenberg, (a) member of Informed Grads, who is studying sociology at the Los Angeles campus, said it was problematic that union leaders had proposed the boycott during a small meeting in the summer, when many graduate students were away. Especially concerning about the initial announcement was the mention of educators’ “responsibility” to talk about Palestinians’ struggle for “liberation from settler-colonialism and apartheid,” she said. Greenberg said that suggested the union may be “encouraging students to teach undergrads the merits of BDS.” She said that violated university policy, could raise questions about the legitimacy about UAW 2865 within the greater union, and provided fodder to critics of organized labor who say that it’s too political...

(UC Provost Aimee) Dorr said the university’s position on academic student employee conduct was “rooted” in the Regents’ statement on course content and others similar in spirit. Dorr also referenced the UAW unit contract, which says that decisions regarding “who is taught, what is taught, how it is taught and who does the teaching involve academic judgment and shall be made at the sole discretion of the university.” ...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/10/27/u-california-grad-student-union-leaders-face-criticism-pushing-israel-boycott