Strike News: Additional Developments - Part 8 (Arrests at Regents)

If you have followed our coverage of the recent Regents meeting at UCLA, you will know that there were protests there which essentially cancelled the planned meeting of the Health Services Committee except for public comments.

More detail from EdSource:

Across several episodes in recent weeks, dozens of striking academic workers have ramped up their activism, putting themselves in positions that they know lead to handcuffs and arrest. ...14 academic workers were arrested after two acts of protests forced the regents to temporarily halt their planned meeting for several hours. The first wave of arrests occurred just before noon, after all but four of the roughly two dozen protesters who snuck into the well-guarded conference space filed out of the building and disrupted a closed meeting of the regents. The remaining four refused police orders to disperse. 

The second set of arrests unfolded during the public comment period in the afternoon. After a graduate worker pleaded with the regents to use their influence to offer the striking workers a better contract, 10 other graduate student workers crossed into the reserved area where regents sit during meetings and sat on the floor, shouting “if we don’t get it, shut it down.” ...

For roughly half an hour they chanted, clapped and sang to a nearly empty chamber as almost all the regents peeled off into a private room just moments after the unrest began. UC police eventually ordered the student workers to disperse. None did and all 10 were handcuffed as they sang “solidarity forever, for the union makes us strong” — the last two to be arrested carrying the solemn tune by themselves...

Last week, scores of striking workers rallied outside the Los Angeles home of Sures, who is also vice chairman of United Talent Agency — among the largest entertainment talent agencies in the country. Also in Los Angeles, another group of several dozen graduate student workers flooded the hallway and office of The David Geffen Company, directed by another UC regent, Richard Sherman, last Wednesday. As a result, 10 graduate workers were arrested, cited and given a court date...

Full story at https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/2022/12/uc-strike-civil-disobedience/. 

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*Videos from Twitter of the protests can be seen at:

https://ia801401.us.archive.org/0/items/health-services-committee/Demonstrations.mp4.

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To hear the text above, click on the link below:

https://ia601402.us.archive.org/25/items/big-ten/protest.mp3