UAW 4121 represents a diverse group of members, and as such there exists a wide spectrum of views on the 5/5 action at the IEB within our membership. Regardless of individual opinions, our union stands together to wholeheartedly reject UW Admin’s use of emergency provisions to deny students their right of due process and the approval of police brutality that UW Admin’s words and actions have demonstrated.
On the evening of May 5th, the Seattle Police Department, SWAT teams and Washington State Troopers stormed the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building (IEB) to arrest 33 pro-Palestine protesters at the behest of UW administration. The police’s brutal tactics resulted in serious injuries including hospitalizations. In a matter of days, skipping all due process in the name of “emergency,” the University suspended 21 students, evicted them from campus housing, and terminated their employment effective immediately. To this day, no investigation has been conducted. Yet students remain without housing, pay, benefits, or any indication whether they will ever be allowed to step foot on campus again.
UW must uphold everyone’s constitutionally protected right to due process, free speech, and protest. Such rights lie at the core of a democratic society, one that is aggressively under attack by the Trump Administration, and which UW’s recent decisions serve to undermine. We call upon UW to immediately rescind the disciplinary actions and stop using “emergency” provisions to skip all investigatory requirements with no recourse.
We are alarmed by the University’s repeated use of skewed narratives to repress students and workers’ right to protest guaranteed under the First Amendment regardless of citizenship status. UW President Cauce’s statement villainizes students protesting genocide as “violent” individuals who threaten public safety to excuse police violence and the university’s complete lack of due process. Our union is all too familiar with this tactic. Last Spring, UW admin falsely labeled a peaceful sit-in by ASEs as intimidation, and used that as a pretext to further stall negotiations during ASE bargaining. UW’s patterned behavior of retaliation over dialogue puts its students and workers at risk.
UW has a choice to make: between protecting its community members and bending to the will of the Trump Administration. Attempts by UW Admin to mollify Trump in advance of the “antisemitism” investigation announced on May 6th will ultimately fail, and won’t remedy anti-semitism on campus. Instead, they will repress all semblance of human rights and free speech in favor of the federal administration’s autocratic vision. We call on President Cauce and Provost Serio to stand on the right side of history in this consequential moment.