As a Jewish Israeli international student conducting postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, I am exactly the kind of person my union, the United Auto Workers Local 4811, claims to champion. In its ongoing contract negotiations for many UC employees, now clouded by the threat of an imminent strike, the union has declared “protect[ing] immigrants’ rights” to be one of its top priorities for all international workers.
If only that had been true for me.
I came to the United States in 2022 to continue my scientific work on bacterial resistance to antibiotics. I wanted to build on my Ph.D. research and other work with the Israeli Ministry of Health, where I helped with advanced detection of COVID-19. But my own union has made it increasingly difficult for me to work and feel safe, simply because I’m an Israeli Jew.
Days after the Hamas-led terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, UAW Local 4811, which represents nearly 50,000 UC employees, including me, released a statement blaming Israel for the “escalation” of violence. For Israelis at Berkeley—some who were mourning murdered or kidnapped friends and family members—it felt like a knife in the back at a moment of national trauma.
As I recently testified before Congress, UAW officials soon put actions to their words. They promoted anti-Israel protests and walkouts, and took part in a “Union Village” inside an anti-Israel encampment.
It is difficult enough to uproot your life and build a new one in a foreign country. But then, the organization that claims to defend immigrant workers instead fuels what I see as hostility to Israelis, it becomes clear which immigrants it values and which it does not.
Hoping to ease tensions, I joined the union, naively believing that my voice would finally be heard.
I was wrong. Israelis who spoke in meetings were mocked. One colleague, whose relatives were kidnapped by Hamas, was openly ridiculed for objecting to the union’s actions. The hostility became so constant that I stopped showing my face during Zoom meetings.
I was also sidelined procedurally with union officials belatedly sharing meeting agendas and disguising discussion topics, including those related to Israel, and making up participation rules. When I joined a subcommittee of the union’s boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) exploratory committee, I allege in my lawsuit that I was left off subcommittee communications. A union official even told me it would be “illegal” to exclude me from the main committee, implying to me that they had considered it or wished they could.
In public, union officials claimed that their BDS resolutions targeted programs connected to Israel’s military. But internally, they targeted academic partnerships and research with any connection to Israel or Jewish culture.
Union members drafted a report titled “Who Rules the University of California?” that echoed conspiracy theories about Jewish control of institutions. It identified Jewish or Israel-connected regents and labeled respected American and Jewish philanthropic foundations that fund education, science and social causes as “Israel-connected” and therefore suspect.
This was not a policy debate. It was evident to me that it was about targeting and excluding Jews, Israelis and anyone associated with them.
Though UC Berkeley chancellor Rich Lyons personally rejected BDS in July, the union continues to push this agenda using different language.
In its current bargaining session, UAW 4811 is demanding that the university reveal funding sources for research and academic partnerships “to empower workers to follow their conscience.” Framed as transparency, this would make it possible to create lists of programs and researchers to target, threatening academic careers across the UC system.
All of this contradicts UAW 4811’s public claims that it is fighting to protect immigrants and international researchers from “abuse, harassment and discrimination in the workplace.” Union officials are even demanding that the university set up a $750,000 legal fund to help international students navigate sudden federal changes in visa rules.
But in my experience, those protections do not seem to extend to everyone. I believe the union has shown selective compassion, celebrating some immigrants while targeting others, especially Jews and Israelis.
Academic freedom is supposed to allow scholars to pursue the truth without fear. But when unions make moves that would allow them to target research funding linked to Jewish or Israeli organizations, they imperil entire labs and create an atmosphere of intimidation. If these tactics spread, Israeli scholars will think twice before pursuing their careers in the United States.
After months of harassment and exclusion, I chose to stand up for myself and others under the law. With the help of a nonprofit law firm, the Fairness Center, I sued the union under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, alleging that union officials discriminated against me because I am an Israeli Jew. Now, as the union returns to the bargaining table, the question is simple: Will its immigrant protections apply to all immigrants or only to those it finds politically acceptable?
I am not asking for special treatment. I am simply asking that when UAW 4811 says it wants to protect immigrants, it means immigrants like me as well.
