FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The coalition of UC unions condemns Trump’s attacks on the University of California
The Coalition of UC Unions -– representing tens of thousands of UC workers, including health care workers, tenure-track faculty, service workers, instructors, and academic researchers -– has released a statement condemning the Trump administration’s unprecedented actions against the University of California and urging the UC administration not to capitulate to Trump’s demands. On August 8, the administration froze $584 million in critical federal research funding and demanded a $1 billion settlement from UCLA — an action that, if accepted, would threaten jobs vital to California’s economy, devastate life-saving scientific research, public health programs, and the educational mission of the nation’s leading public university system. UC is California’s third-largest employer, generates $82 billion in annual economic activity, and provides pathways to opportunity for hundreds of thousands of students, including more first-generation and low-income students than any other major research university system.
UC-AFT has joined the Coalition in urging the UC Regents and California’s elected leaders to reject these demands, defend public higher education, and protect the innovation and economic vitality that benefit all Californians. Together we and other employees of the University of California demand:
No concessions
No capitulation
No cuts
Yes to jobs
Yes to educating future leaders
Yes to healthcare autonomy
Yes to lifesaving research
Yes to protecting an engine of economic mobility
Read the Coalition’s full statement here. And if you haven’t already, join hundreds of your colleagues in sending a letter to President Milliken and the UC Regents today calling on them to Hold the Line and refuse any concessions demanded by Trump’s Department of Justice and to stabilize funding for research AND teaching in UC!
The organizations who have signed on include:
UC American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT)
Council of UC Faculty Associations (CUCFA)
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) 3299
California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA-NNOC)
Committee of Interns and Residents-Service Employees International Union (CIR-SEIU)
United Auto Workers (UAW) 4811
American Association of University Professors (AAUP)
