According to a lawsuit brought by Jewish students against UCLA with the help of the Becket Fund and former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, for more than a week this spring the university allowed a group of radical activists to take over a portion of the campus.
In Frankel v. Regents, filed June 5, the three plaintiffs specifically allege that the activists “proudly trumpet[ed] their hatred of the Jewish people” by chanting anti-Semitic threats like “‘death to the Jews.’”
Moreover, they set up a blockade to prevent any student, Jewish or non-Jewish, from getting to class or the campus library unless he or she made a statement “pledging . . . allegiance to the activists’ views.”
United Autoworkers (UAW) union bosses purport to “represent” the academic interests of roughly 48,000 grad students at UCLA and other California public universities.
But they have yet to utter a word of criticism against the “death to Jews” bullies.
Indeed, they have loudly sided with the bullies!
National Right to Work Committee Vice President Matthew Leen commented:
“If the facts alleged in the Frankel v. Regents complaint are correct, and so far no one has publicly contested them, then UCLA flagrantly violated its obligations under federal statutes and the U.S. Constitution during the eight days late this April and early this May it allowed the radicals’ blockade to continue.
“As a consequence of UCLA officials’ negligence, UCLA students were threatened and denied access to educational facilities on the basis of their religious views and/or policy and ethical views that are protected under the First Amendment.
“Finally, on May 2, UCLA belatedly decided to, in the Frankel plaintiffs’ words, ‘end the blatant segregation and targeted harassment of Jews.’
“But top bosses of UAW Local 4811, who under state law wield monopoly bargaining power over public university grad students who help finance their educations by working part-time as teaching assistants, research assistants, etc., insist the ugly threats and the blockade should have been allowed to continue!
“In fact, Local 4811 bosses and international UAW President Shawn Fain himself are claiming that the arrest of some UAW militants who refused to end their menacing blockade when campus security and police officers demanded that they do so was a ‘violation’ of the militants’ ‘free speech rights’!
“Clearly, Shawn Fain either doesn’t know, or doesn’t care, what the First Amendment says.
“His deplorable and repeated expressions of solidarity with ‘death to Jews’ campus thugs are a vivid illustration of why no Big Labor boss should be granted the power under federal law to get workers fired for refusal to join or bankroll a union.”
On May 20, Local 4811 bosses launched a so-called “rolling” strike against UCLA and other campuses in the University of California (UC) system, in large part to protest UCLA’s moves finally to stop radical activists from quashing the freedom of students who disagree with their beliefs.
For a time, more than half of the 48,000 UAW-“represented” workers across UC’s 10 campuses were being ordered out on strike.
Local 4811 President Rafael Jaime, an English grad student, openly declared that his organization’s aim in staging the wildcat job action with final exams approaching was to “maximize chaos and confusion for the employer.”
For roughly two weeks, union operatives reportedly blocked access to hospital and childcare centers, barricaded buildings, and harassed university employees and contract workers as well as students and faculty members.
Finally, after failing twice to get injunctive relief from Big Labor Gov. Gavin Newsom’s appointees at the Public Employees Relations Board, UC prevailed upon Orange County Superior Court Judge Randall Sherman to order a temporary halt to the strike late on June 7.
“While UAW kingpins like to style themselves as defenders of ‘the little guy,’ the reality is that they are bullies who instinctively side with other bullies in battle after battle,” said Mr. Leen.
“The very UAW bosses who sided in recent weeks with radicals determined to force UCLA students to say things they don’t believe routinely threaten to get rank-and-file autoworkers fired if they try to exercise their legal right to refuse to bankroll union electioneering and lobbying.”
This article was originally published in our monthly newsletter. Go here to access previous newsletter posts.
To support our cause and help end forced unionism, go here to donate.
Year after year, far more taxpayers are moving out of forced-unionism states than are moving into them. They are taking their income with them. And forced-unionism states’ income losses due to taxpayer out-migration have soared in recent years.
Big Labor politicians in Boston are now tripping over themselves to scuttle future legal challenges to union-only PLA’s in Massachusetts.
Biden/Harris Boxes Out Union-Free Hardhats From Public Works