A state judge has ordered thousands of academic workers at the University of California (UC) to temporarily halt their strike over a crackdown on student-led pro-Palestine protests, ruling that the walkout was causing “damage to students’ education”, Al Jazeera reports.

United Auto Workers Local 4811, which represents 48,000 graduate students working as teaching assistants, researchers, tutors, and other academic employees at UC, started its strike on May 20 in Santa Cruz.

The union alleged that the free speech rights of its members were violated during police and university crackdowns on pro-Palestine protests on several UC campuses last month.

But Orange County Superior Court Judge Randall J Sherman issued an emergency restraining order against the academic workers, after UC lawyers argued that the weeks-long strike was causing “irreparable harm” to students ahead of their final exams.