UPTE files major charge against UC’s crackdown on free speech

Over the last year, the University of California has imposed draconian rules that attempt to stop workers from advocating on behalf of their patients, research, and students.

This January, UPTE filed a 490-page charge with the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), forcefully challenging dozens of UC’s new rules. These repressive policies set unconscionable limits on both employee and union speech, running counter to well-established protections under state and federal law. The Public Employee Relations Board is responsible for safeguarding the collective bargaining statutes that govern employees of California’s universities and other public institutions across the state.

Among UC’s many repressive measures, UC San Francisco and UC Davis now ban a lone leafletter from venturing closer than fifty feet from any door, while UC Merced forces every picketer or leafletter to remain thirty feet away from walkways, roadways, or doors. Our charge highlights that in 2014, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down a thirty-five-foot buffer zone around doorways, underscoring the outrageous nature of UC’s even more extreme demands.

“UC Merced’s illegal acts force us into a tiny spot in the middle of a lawn,” said Dan Russell, UPTE President and Chief Negotiator. “We strongly believe no other public institution has ever attempted such a draconian buffer, even for just one leafletter, pushing them far from every walkway. It’s an insult to the environment of open debate that UC proclaims to foster.”

We’re calling on PERB to stop UC’s escalating war on workers’ speech. UPTE simply demands that UC respect the same basic rights nearly all other employers respect: the right to advocate in and near our workplaces through peaceful, constitutionally protected speech during the ordinary workday.

Eduardo de Ugarte, UPTE Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Chapter Chair and Technical Illustrator 4, spoke out against these absurd policies: “We’re now forbidden from rallying at dozens of appropriate locations where we’ve peacefully gathered before. They’ve relegated us to three tiny areas, far from our rank-and-file members, leadership, and workplaces. The Lab’s excuse? It claims it can’t afford adequate security. The Lab could not provide a single example of labor-union-related problems in this context. These rules limit our essential activities and are simply indefensible.”

UC’s rules are wildly contradictory. UC Irvine bars union organizers from leafletting anywhere except employee entrances and parking lots, yet other UC locations ban us from parking lots altogether. It’s a hypocritical patchwork approach that blatantly defies California court rulings upholding the right to leaflet in parking lots, except in the rare case of congestion in a crowded lot.

Three UC campuses have now adopted an outrageous requirement for any union or “outside group” to secure a $1 million insurance policy just to hold an outdoor meeting. Most UC locations also ban banners or insist unions must seek prior approval for each use, limiting employees to signs no larger than 30” x 30”. Worse, the same facilities treat the mere presence of a small literature table, a canopy for protection from the elements, or a single bullhorn as a violation of grounds to demand yet another round of permissions. Some campuses, such as UC San Diego and UC San Francisco, even demand rally organizers submit requests several weeks in advance to hold small, peaceful events—restrictions similar to those that courts have struck down time and again for being unreasonably far in advance or for lacking clear deadlines or standards for administrators’ decisions.

UPTE President Dan Russell underscored the urgency and deep frustration among members: “On September 28, 2024, at our statewide union convention, UPTE members unanimously approved a resolution demanding we fight speech-restricting rules by every means possible—including at the bargaining table. The resolution directs UPTE to ‘vigorously oppose in every way possible, including at the bargaining table, all new rules designed to limit our free speech and protest rights.’ Rank-and-file members from across the UC system pushed it forward, outraged by UC’s new wave of gag orders. And since our collective bargaining agreement expired on September 30, we are no longer constrained by any no-strike clauses.”

Finally, UPTE’s charge blasts UC’s claim that a legislative request for a “speech policy report” somehow legitimized these rushed, unilateral rules. UC’s actions were never about compliance or campus safety—they were about silencing the voices of workers and stifling the core principle of free expression at a public institution allegedly dedicated to open dialogue.

UPTE will continue to fight these extreme and unconstitutional speech restrictions until every UC worker’s First Amendment rights are restored and respected. Stay tuned for updates as we press onward in this pivotal battle for our members’ fundamental freedoms.