Attacks on free speech and the right to assemble are yet another example of UC’s misplaced priorities
Our current contract negotiations center on a theme of “Resetting UC’s Priorities.” For too long, executives, CEOs, Chancellors, and top administrators have neglected the needs of frontline workers—safe staffing, work/life balance, fair pay, career progression, job security, and more.
Instead, while pleading poverty at the bargaining table with us, the UC Regents have awarded huge raises to top executives and approved the purchase of additional ammunition and military equipment. At the same time, they’re pursuing proposals in our negotiations that would dramatically restrict the rights of our members to advocate for improved working conditions and outlaw our ability to gather and protest in front of or near our workplaces.
Regarding the free speech restrictions, UC has used the recent Palestine protests and a legislative request for a report on its speech policies as a "Trojan horse" of sorts to push through radical and unprecedented limitations on speech without proper bargaining—a clear violation of the Higher Education Employer-Employee Relations Act (HEERA).
Already, UCSF has announced that no protester can get within 50 feet of a doorway, despite the U.S. Supreme Court striking down a similar 35-foot restriction in 2014. UCSF is also trying to prevent unions from protesting at our usual spots on the plaza and lawns near Mission Bay Hospital, further silencing our voices.
“These unilateral actions by the administration are not just disappointing—they're unacceptable and plainly in violation of the law and established precedent,” said Matias Campos, a Pharmacist at UCSF and UPTE’s systemwide Executive Vice President. “These proposed restrictions are not just alarming because of their clear illegality, but because they demonstrate just how out of touch the administration is from the challenges frontline workers face every day in serving our patients and students or advancing our research. We need UC to focus on safe staffing, career progression opportunities, and work/life balance—not the acquisition of military weapons, the restriction of free speech, or raises for those at the very top while our members fall further behind.”
The issue also extends beyond UC campuses and healthcare facilities. At Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), a Department of Energy facility which is managed by UC, workers have been barred from leafleting walkways commonly used by visitors. UPTE members have distributed flyers about critical workplace issues at interior and exterior entrances, as well as multiple other locations around the Lab’s campus, both recently and in the past.
“This move directly impedes our ability to communicate pressing concerns to stakeholders and the public, and to advocate for necessary changes. It’s disappointing that UC and LBNL are focused on curtailing our fundamental rights to free speech and collective action rather than investing in the people responsible for the important work we do both at the Berkeley Lab and across the University of California system as a whole,” said Eduardo de Ugarte, a Graphic Designer and UPTE’s Chapter Chair at LBNL. “At the heart of our campaign is a basic question—how do we ensure public institutions serve the community as a whole while also doing right by their employees? Do these draconian restrictions serve the Berkeley Lab’s mission of ‘advancing the scope of human knowledge and seeking science solutions to the greatest problems facing humankind’ or do they merely insulate decision-makers from the consequences of unfair labor practices and a healthy culture of advocacy and debate?”