The United Auto Workers (UAW) held a strike authorization vote (SAV) February 5-13, 2026 for an unfair labor practice strike. This vote involves university employees represented by UAW Local 4811, which includes academic student employees (ASEs)—all teaching assistants (TAs), teaching fellows, associate instructors, readers, tutors, and graduate student researchers (GSRs) at all UC campuses. Two new UAW unions, UAW Research and Public Service Professionals (RPSP) and UAW Student Services and Advising Professionals (SSAP), also participated in the SAV. The vote passed overwhelmingly. This does not mean that UC workers will go on strike, but it authorizes union leaders to call a strike if negotiations fail.
We want to provide UC faculty with information in case these workers choose to go on strike and have therefore updated and reissued previous FAQ on Senate faculty members’ rights and responsibilities during a strike. Unit 18 faculty should seek guidance from their union (UC-AFT).
CUCFA’s fundamental interest is in defending faculty rights, securing their resources to conduct research, and improving faculty working conditions. It is the university’s responsibility to address the disruptions caused by a strike and the administration should not expect faculty to continually take on additional labor in order to mitigate strike impacts. Further, we are opposed to UC’s pattern of passing on the costs of negotiated wage increases to faculty grants and research funds. Such increases should be centrally funded rather than pushed down to departments and labs where they reduce faculty resources for research and generate additional workload burdens.
Q1. If a strike happens, do I need to volunteer to perform the labor of workers who are on strike?
A: No. Under HEERA, faculty can decline to perform struck work that is outside our customary duties. “Picking up struck work” refers to the act of performing tasks, duties, or labor that would normally be done by employees who are currently on strike. As faculty, it does not matter whether or not you support the strike or UAW’s demands. However you feel about the strike, faculty have protected rights under HEERA to refuse to take up more than our share of labor. The UC administration cannot compel us to take on additional work due to a strike. While faculty may be inclined to try to mitigate the effects of the strike for the sake of our students or our research, it is the university’s responsibility to resolve any disruptions caused by the absence of striking workers, and UC should not expect already overtaxed and overburdened faculty to act against our own interests by taking on additional uncompensated labor.
You may receive messages from the university telling you that it is your responsibility to ensure the continuity of instruction for your students. Such messages do not mean that you have to volunteer to do the work of strikers that is not part of your normal work duties, including teaching discussion sections, grading exams and papers that would normally be graded by ASEs, or ensuring the continuity of experiments in labs. These messages fundamentally misunderstand the time and labor required to carry out our jobs under ordinary circumstances. Our campuses hire GSIs, TAs, readers and GSRs because we have determined that the faculty cannot do this instructional and research labor alone. As faculty, we too wish for research and educational continuity that would allow us to meet UC’s educational and research mission, but it is up to the UC administration to create a work environment that allows for such continuity. The best way that the UC administration can prioritize the research and educational mission of the university is to respond to UAW’s demands and bargain in good faith. As faculty, we can best ensure the continuity of research and education by putting pressure on the UC administration to come to an agreement at the bargaining table. Picking up struck work dilutes the impact of the strike and draws out the length of negotiations.
Our HEERA rights to not pick up struck labor are enshrined in state law and have precedence over UC policies, including the Faculty Code of Conduct and Regents Policy 2301. Moreover, the Faculty Code of Conduct itself contains multiple provisions that may protect faculty, including its recognition of faculty rights to free expression, protections for “ethical” behavior, and treating faculty conduct as unacceptable only if it lacks “legitimate reason” or is “unexcused.” Disciplinary procedures would also have to go through the appropriate Senate channels which act as an oversight and a brake on arbitrary disciplinary actions.
See Qs 5-10 for more detailed information on faculty rights in relation to grading.
Q2: Why did UAW members vote on a strike authorization?
UAW alleges that UC has not engaged in good-faith bargaining, including by implementing unilateral changes to working conditions, which is an unfair labor practice (ULP). In particular, the UAW charges UC with unilaterally cutting workers’ hours, withholding critical information, and imposing new fees without negotiating. In addition, UAW has found that UC has unilaterally changed its teaching assistant and GSR workload and appointment policies in certain departments at some campuses, including Mathematics, English, Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology. SSAP and RPSP have made demands on preventing misclassification of staff, instituting a step-based wage scale, job security, and benefits that have all been rejected. Stay informed on UAW’s bargaining updates and UC’s offers here, here, and here.
Q3: Does a vote authorizing a strike mean that there will be a strike?
A: There are at least several stages before we have more information about whether workers represented by UAW will strike or what this strike will look like. The strike authorization vote opened on February 5 and closed on February 13. A majority of voting members voted yes to strike, therefore, the UAW statewide Executive Boards for each union are authorized to call a strike, if a satisfactory resolution is not negotiated between the unions and the University. The existing agreement requires the UAW and the University to complete three days of mediation before a strike. Accordingly, the parties have tentatively agreed to mediation dates that stretch from mid-February through early March. At this point, we do not know if there will be a strike, when and where it will begin, or how long a strike might be. We will update the response to this question as new information comes to light.
Q4: What am I supposed to do about graduate student timesheets?
A:. Practices with regard to timesheets and tracking of absences have varied widely from campus to campus. We do not think that faculty instructors of record nor PIs should be responsible for the daily tracking of others’ work, for ensuring that other workers submit timesheets, or for affirmatively reporting on their presence/absence when they do not submit timesheets. If in advance of this potential strike faculty had not previously asked workers whether they would be working on future dates, asking about this in the light of such a strike could constitute a violation of those workers’ rights. In general, we recommend that faculty not take on any new or additional labor in relation to either the tracking or reporting of employee absences, but continue to act as you have prior to the strike.
Q5: I am teaching a class with assignments that may not be graded in the event that the UAW calls an open-ended strike. Do I need to volunteer to do the grading?
A: No. As we said above, under HEERA, faculty do not need to volunteer to perform struck work that is outside our customary duties. It is the longstanding practice for courses with assigned ASEs is for them to grade course assignments, proctor exams, and maintain the records of student grades. This is routinely documented in their Description of Duties.
If you are asked to do additional grading, you may respond by declining the extra work and communicating that you do not wish to volunteer to take up the struck labor. If it is unclear if the message is a suggestion or a directive, you can and should ask if you are REQUIRED to do this work. If your department chair or Dean insists that you must perform the additional struck work, you have the right under HEERA to refuse. If you do not feel comfortable doing so, you can state that you are performing the work under protest. You should document all new duties, dates, and time required to perform the work, any agreement on mitigation of the increase in work, how you will be compensated for this increased work, and any objections you have, including your physical and mental ability to complete the work. A template response for this email can be found here. Additionally, you can cc info@cucfa.org or contact your campus Faculty Association, and we can facilitate communication with the appropriate Academic Senate committee or office on your campus.
Q6: I am teaching a class with assignments that may be ungraded due to a strike. Should I just grade students based on their previously graded assignments or assign all students an A?
A: No. In this situation, issuing grades based only on some assignments or without necessary input from ASEs would not be fair to students. For example, it is impossible for instructors to grade students for participation in ASE-led sections when the instructors did not observe those sections. Furthermore, it would disadvantage some students to arbitrarily discard the section participation part of the course grade. Giving all students A’s might appear to be a more equitable solution, but it would undermine the legitimacy of the grades, UC transcripts, and the educational mission of the university. It is our professional responsibility as faculty to ensure that students are graded fairly and accurately.
Q7: I have ASEs who I expect to do the grading. Can the university discipline me for not providing grades in these courses before the grade deadline?
A: HEERA protects the rights of faculty to choose not to volunteer to perform struck work that is not normally part of their required duties, as we said above. The University would potentially be in violation of HEERA if it disciplined faculty in this instance. Furthermore, the Faculty Code of Conduct acknowledges that circumstances such as a strike may excuse a delay in grading by defining unacceptable conduct liable to be sanctioned as only those delays that are “undue and unexcused” (APM-015.II.A.1e). Any disciplinary action would also have to go through appropriate Senate channels, which act as an oversight and a brake on arbitrary disciplinary actions for Senate faculty.
Q8: Who will be responsible for missed grading when the strike is resolved?
A: If a settlement is reached before the end of the current quarter/semester, your existing ASE may be able to complete the grading, but only if it fits within their contractual workload limits. If a resolution is not reached until the next quarter/semester, an agreement about grading may be part of the settlement between UC and UAW. If not, then departments will need to hire ASEs on new contracts to complete that work. CUCFA advocates for this additional labor to be centrally funded rather than a departmental responsibility.
Q9: If all the labor of calculating grades was already completed before the strike, or my ASE was not on strike and has graded all work, should I submit grades?
A: In this case, you should submit grades unless you have chosen to withhold your own labor from the university (see below).
Q10: Can I volunteer to perform some of my ASE’s grading work for students with exceptional circumstances and still maintain my HEERA protections?
A: Faculty who are refusing to perform struck work could volunteer to do some small amount of struck work to provide grades to individuals with exceptional circumstances. This should be done sparingly and may not be necessary (campuses should make contingency plans for impacted students).
Q11: What should I do if I feel intimidated by the administration’s statements about UAW’s strike?
A: The best defense against intimidation is knowledge of your rights. And importantly, your Faculty Association is here for you. Please report any intimidation or pressure to pick up struck work to your campus Faculty Association or directly to CUCFA, who will liaison with our legal team to ensure that the law is respected.
INFORMATION FOR FACULTY CONSIDERING WITHHOLDING THEIR OWN LABOR
Q12: Can I withhold my own labor by respecting the UAW’s picket line?
A: Yes. Withholding one’s own labor is not the same as declining to pick up struck work (see Q3). Faculty have protected rights to both of these actions, but they should be understood as distinct, with different potential obligations and consequences.
Respecting a picket line (also referred to as “honoring a picket line” or “not crossing a picket line”) is sometimes used as a general term to describe supporting a strike or not entering a location where a strike is happening. However, when there is a strike at one’s own workplace, it specifically describes individual employees acting on their conscience and withholding their own labor in solidarity with striking workers. In this case, that means not doing work on behalf of the university. We understand this to include, but not be limited to, teaching classes, grading, submitting grades, and conducting research work otherwise handled by GSRs. Respecting a picket line is not the same as engaging directly in the strike, but it shows your support for the picketing workers, their union, and, in this case, it can also be a way to express your concern about the unfair labor practices of the UC and their negative impact on your own working conditions. Some faculty may decide to respect the picket line in order to put pressure on the administration to address the unfair practices and therefore help end the strike in a timely fashion. .
Q13: Do I have a right to respect a picket line in general and the UAW picket line in particular?
A: Yes. All university employees covered under HEERA, including Senate faculty, even department chairs or heads of similar academic units or programs, are generally non-managerial and also have the right to respect a picket line established by other university employees. Senate faculty are not subject to a no strikes clause and so maintain their right to honor a picket line. University employees also have individual free speech rights that provide additional protections.The UC may try to claim that if the UAW strike is determined to be unlawful, these protections may not apply, but PERB has not found that an employer can discipline workers who are honoring a picket line with other workers who are engaged in an unprotected strike.
You may start honoring the picket line at any point during the strike. However, if you choose to respect the picket line but then decide to return to work, you should only honor the picket line again if the UAW strikes over a new issue. You may always show your solidarity in other ways, including declining to pick up struck labor and being present at the picket during your personal time.
Q14: I’ve heard faculty who currently work with TAs or GSRs can’t honor the picket line because they are supervisors. Is this the case?
A: No. Senate faculty have some supervisory responsibilities regarding TAs, GSRs, and other workers, which require that we not ask them about their plans for the strike. However, our supervisory responsibilities regarding Teaching Assistants and researchers do not cancel out our rights to honor a picket line. For more details on this, see this analysis by UC legal scholars.
Q15: Isn’t respecting the picket line a violation of the Faculty Code of Conduct?
A: No, CUCFA does not understand the Faculty Code of Conduct as prohibiting conduct protected under HEERA, including respecting a picket line. Our HEERA rights to not pick up struck labor and to honor a picket line, enshrined in state law, have precedence over UC policies including the Faculty Code of Conduct and Regents Policy 2301. Moreover, the Faculty Code of Conduct itself contains multiple provisions that may protect faculty, including its recognition of faculty rights to free expression, protections for “ethical” behavior, and treating faculty conduct as unacceptable only if it lacks “legitimate reason” or is “unexcused.” Disciplinary procedures would also have to go through the appropriate Senate channels which act as an oversight and a brake on arbitrary disciplinary actions.
Q16: What might be the consequences of respecting the UAW picket line?
A: The university may choose to withhold the pay of Senate faculty for their time respecting UAW’s picket line. It would, however, be unlawful for the university to dock additional pay or take other disciplinary action against faculty for exercising their protected rights.
Q17: Do I need to tell someone if I am choosing to respect the picket line?
A: You are under no legal obligation to affirmatively notify the university if you are respecting the picket line. If you want to make clear that you will be doing so, you could choose to inform your department chair, although again this is not required. If you are asked whether you will be honoring the picket line, you are not obligated to respond, but if you decide to answer, you should respond truthfully.