An Israeli postdoctoral researcher at UC Berkeley filed a lawsuit last week against her union, alleging that its leaders have created a pervasive atmosphere of bias and hostility against Israeli and American Jews.
In a 105-page complaint filed Friday in federal court in San Francisco, plaintiff Karin Yaniv paints a picture of a union engaged in pro-Palestinian activism that has intensified since Oct. 7, 2023, and become openly hostile toward pro-Israel union members.
The defendant in the lawsuit, UAW Local 4811, represents 48,000 student employees, postdocs and researchers in the UC system, according to its website. It is part of the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW), one of the largest unions in the country, with more than 400,000 members across a variety of industries.
Yaniv, a microbiologist, came to Berkeley in 2022 to study how bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics.
Her lawsuit describes how she and other Israeli and American Jewish union members were taken aback by a statement that the union’s executive board released one week after the attack on Oct. 7, 2023. “We mourn the tragic loss of both Palestinian and Israeli lives this week,” the union statement read, “and we unequivocally condemn the decades-long violent occupation of Palestine that has led to this escalation of horrific violence.”
In a press release announcing the lawsuit, Yaniv described the emotional pain caused by the union’s statement.
“It was like a knife in the back of UC Berkeley’s Jewish community when, less than a week after the horror and death of October 7, the union issued a statement condemning Israel,” Yaniv said in the press release. “Since that time, union officials have only twisted that knife by systematically discriminating against Jews, supporting the anti-Semitic BDS movement, and creating a hostile work environment for Israeli Jews on campus.” BDS refers to the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel.
UAW 4811 said in a statement emailed Monday to J. that it does not tolerate discrimination.
“Although we are not yet in receipt of this lawsuit, we want to make clear that there is not and has never been any space for discrimination of any kind in our union,” the union said in the statement. “We have always been committed to fighting injustice and oppression in all forms, and all of our statements on this matter make that clear.”
Union members across the UC system have been outspoken in support of the pro-Palestinian cause. Last spring, the union voted to strike in opposition to UC system’s treatment of pro-Palestinian protesters and the decision to use police to shut down tent encampments. A California judge ordered the strike to cease weeks later.
Yaniv’s complaint was filed by attorneys with the Fairness Center, a Pennsylvania-based public interest firm that represents clients in suits against public-sector unions. The suit alleges that the union has created a hostile work environment and has violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act.
The complaint alleges that UAW 4811 officials encouraged members to attend pro-Palestinian protests, including one at Cal’s Zellerbach Playhouse last February that turned violent.
According to the complaint, union officials participated in campus encampments, approved anti-Israel resolutions, chanted anti-Israel slogans and withheld information from Jewish union members given to other members.
In one incident, the complaint alleges, an Israeli union member who had family members kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7 was ridiculed during a union meeting.
“While she was speaking, Union members laughed, interrupted her, and wrote ‘LMFAO’ (slang for ‘laugh my f***ing ass off’) in the meeting’s Zoom chat,” the complaint alleges.
The lawsuit also alleges that union leaders did not adequately address complaints of bias and discrimination.
“Instead of responding to her concerns, the Union, by and through its officials, discriminated against Yaniv due to her identity as an Israeli Jew,” the complaint alleges, “including by denying her participation in Union working groups to which anyone who was non-Israeli was given admission; failing to send her communications that other Union members received; and violating other Union rules in order to discourage or prevent her from participating in Union meetings and votes.”