As Universities Fold to Trump, This Union Is Still Fighting for International Students

“The chief negotiator argued that some students [facing legal fees] could be felons,” said a member of the UAW 4811 bargaining team when asked why the university continues to oppose setting aside funds for international students’ legal defense. “So this very improbable scenario became one of his arguments for not accepting this in the contract.”

Beyond the union’s material demands, such as the creation of a legal defense fund for international students facing deportation, it is putting a broader, ideological pressure on the UC to, as Chowdhury puts it, “pick a side.” He maintained that “there is precedent” for fighting back against executive overreach. “During the first Trump administration, the University took quite a few bold stances,” said Chowdhury.

But defining what counts as “protected speech” when universities face political scrutiny and threats of funding cuts has become a point of contention, which the union’s leaders acknowledge. “What we recommend right now to international workers is to be very, very careful, at least,” said a member of the bargaining team. “That’s what I do, especially because I’m a single father here with my daughter. We don’t have any family here in the States.” The union, he added, doesn’t officially encourage international members to take political action outside of the context of organized labor activity, where collective action offers a crucial layer of safety.

Representing 48,000 workers, UAW 4811 has a track record of winning tough battles against the UC. In 2022, after a six-week strike, the union secured a 46 percent raise in minimum pay for academic student employees. With their contract set to expire at the end of the year, the union is similarly focused on bolstering “mass worker action,” said Udayan Tandon, the unit chair for UC San Diego. “We as workers have to continue escalating and continue pushing the university to get them to seriously engage with these demands.”

On October 22, members at all eight campuses delivered a 20-foot scroll to administrators, containing over 13,000 member signatures on a petition for the UC to accept the union’s proposed international student protections. Administrators at all locations declined to speak with UAW 4811 representatives. The same week, the union announced its plan to rally at all campuses in late November. “We’re able to set an example for higher education on how universities should respond in the current moment,” Tandon said. “There’s broad recognition that this current campaign, with these international worker protections at the table, are really, really important.”

For the union, the university’s collusion and complacency in the face of federal efforts to limit international students’ rights is part of higher education’s broader conservative trajectory—not unlike the financialization of universities in the 1980s or the free speech panic incited by Turning Point USA and conservative debate culture in the 2010s.

The union’s criticisms question whether the university’s capitulation to the Trump administration is politically advantageous for the institution, and if this advantage will matter once an institution is stripped of much of its capability and workforce. The research reputation of the UC has long been contingent on its ability to provide a secure work environment for international scholars. In 2025, for example, five UC researchers were recipients of a Nobel Prize, and two of them are immigrants.

“For the last several months, I’ve been terrified of having my immigration status mysteriously revoked, when I don’t know if I’ll be let back into the country next year,” said Rahoul Banerjee Ghosh, an academic student employee at UC Berkeley, during a speech at the November rally. Ghosh is choosing not to renew their contract when it expires in December, citing the fact that the renewal process would likely result in delays or cancellation. “That means I won’t be able to go to international conferences to learn and grow as a scientist, and I won’t be able to travel home to my family.”

On December 8, the UAW 4811 bargaining team will begin four consecutive days of contract negotiations in Berkeley. With less than a month until the contract expires, workers have made clear that they are prepared to authorize a strike. One way or another, as Chowdhury said in his rally speech, the university will “learn this lesson that their—and our—collective survival depends on.”