Meanwhile, back at the ranch... - Part 2

UC was hoping that the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) would quickly intervene in the current student-worker strike and declare it to be in violation of the union-management contracts' no-strike clauses. (There is more than one contract.) It's always a risk to depend on swift action from labor law - but in this case, UC got a relatively swift decision late yesterday. 

The problem for UC is that it is also risky to expect labor law decisions to fix things or to fix things quickly. We don't have the text of the PERB decision but it appears from a description in the LA Times that PERB punted:*

The state labor board late Thursday declined to stop the University of California academic workers’ strike, ruling that a UC complaint did not meet the legal standard required for its intervention. UC officials had claimed that the walkout was illegal and causing such serious harm that it needed to be stopped. The union representing 48,000 academic workers called the strike over alleged free speech violations related to Israel-Hamas protests and other harms to workers...

On Tuesday, the walkout is scheduled expand to UC Davis and UCLA, where academic workers, their supporters and backers of the Palestinian cause rallied on campus Thursday. UC officials had asserted that the labor action was illegal because of a no-strike clause in the union contract and had sought a court injunction from the California Public Employment Relations Board to immediately halt the strike...

The labor board said the university did not meet the threshold required for it to intervene. “The Board presently declines to pursue an injunction as requested by Regents of the University of California (UC), as UC has not established that injunctive relief is ‘just and proper,’” labor officials said. The board left the matter open “in the event it learns of evidence or facts to support a finding that injunctive relief is just and proper.”

The board’s action does not end the legal battle over competing claims before the panel. Labor officials still must deal with unfair labor action complaints from each side. In a statement, UC alluded to this ongoing process, which could end in its favor in the coming days or weeks...

Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-23/denied-uc-fails-to-get-a-court-order-to-stop-academic-workers-strike-union-hails-decision.

The latest BruinAlert as of this morning:

Campus Activity Updates (May 24th)

Campus has returned to regular operations. Following demonstration activity yesterday, Moore Hall and Dodd Hall are now open and classes will take place in person today. Law enforcement and other security personnel continue to be on campus to help promote safety and actively monitor conditions.

The alerts appear at https://bso.ucla.edu/.

It should be noted finally that PERB decisions apply only to union-management decisions and activities and not to the activities of demonstrators more generally.

===

*It would be nice if UC released the actual texts of its filings with PERB rather than just descriptions of them. The union has posted the actual text of its filings. Technically, these filings are all public documents. Just saying...