Irvine, California - Andrew Yang was called out for crossing a picket line during a speaking engagement at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), as tens of thousands of workers across the UC system are on strike.

Yang was the special guest during the UCI School of Social Ecology's Leading the Change Distinguished Speaker Series on Tuesday, where he touched on a range of issues from Donald Trump's 2024 campaign announcement to the deindustrialization of the Midwest

But standing with labor seems to be just a buzzword for the Forward Party co-founder, who actually crossed a picket line to participate in the event.

Around 48,000 academic workers across the UC system are currently striking for better wages and working conditions. As costs of living skyrocket in California, university workers, including graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, teaching assistants, and other employees, are demanding higher base salaries and greater support in transit, child care, health care, and disability justice.

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When a third-year doctoral student in History named Mark Gradoni confronted Yang about his decision to move forward with the UCI event, the former Democratic presidential candidate pleaded ignorance.

"On the topic of public education, 48,000 academic workers are currently on strike at the University of California, so does the Forward Party endorse crossing picket lines to collect a speaking fee, or is that a unique personal position?" Gradoni asks in a video shared on Twitter.

Yang answers after an uncomfortable pause, "I confess to not being aware of the particulars of what's going on in terms of negotiations, so, you know, I can't really comment."

Gradoni then says the fact that Yang is unfamiliar with the largest academic labor strike in US history is "quite surprising."

The student and his colleague Alexander Rudenshiold, who helped plan and film the action, are ultimately ushered out of the lecture hall, but not before Rudenshiold gets in a last word: "No scabs at UCI."

Academic workers at UCI and nine other UC campuses are still on strike the day after Yang's speaking event.

Rudenshiold, a first-year doctoral student in Visual Studies and picket leader at UCI, explained his and Gradoni's reason for confronting the politician: "I remembered that Yang took anti-union stances during his failed New York mayoral run, so we assumed he wouldn’t respect our picket," he told TAG24 NEWS.

"Then we looked up his speaking fee and saw that it was estimated at $50,000 to $100,000, the amount of two to four academic workers’ current salaries, and knew we had to say something."

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Gradoni, a head union steward at UCI, added, "The idea that Andrew Yang would show up and cross a picket line of 48,000 workers statewide to collect a speaking fee is profoundly revelatory about his actual investment in working people. I was honestly taken aback by his ignorance of the strike’s details."

"The fact that he could come here completely unprepared to speak on an issue of profound and pressing importance to this community reveals how hollow both Yang’s project and the university’s commitment to its mission of creating a 'brilliant future' for its students are."

Rudenshiold and Gradoni encouraged people to support the movement for a #FairUCNow by checking out the resources on the Student Researchers United-UAW website.