“The use and sanction of violent force to curtail peaceful protest is an attack on free speech and the right to demand change, and the university must sit down with students, unions, and campus organizations to negotiate, rather than escalate,” read an announcement of the strike vote from UAW local 4811.

Forty-one students at Brown were arrested, and charges remain, despite the pro-Palestinian encampment dispersing as part of negotiations that include a planned vote by the university’s highest governing body for October on divesting from companies affiliated with Israel.

“It’s really about the university trying to leverage this fact that, as graduate workers, we do have student status, and kind of using that as a workaround for violating labor law.

The union has called for charges to be dropped against all 93 protesters who were arrested on 24 April, and for the university to accede to demands from USC Divest from Death Coalition.

“The University of California is deeply alarmed, concerned and disappointed that our UAW-represented academic employees would choose this moment of crisis to take a vote to engage in an unlawful work stoppage.

UC values these employees and asks them to join it in supporting our communities at this time,” a spokesperson for the University of California system said in an email.

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