A union representing more than 40,000 workers at University of California campuses and medical centers announced Wednesday it will launch an open strike next month unless its contract demands are met, opening the possibility of postponing medical procedures, limited cleaning at hospitals and campuses and cuts to undergraduate dining services.
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 3299 (AFSCME) The union’s membership includes custodians, food service workers in campus dining halls and hospital cafeterias, essential workers including gardeners, and skilled craft workers including plumbers and electricians. In hospitals, employees serve as patient care personnel such as radiology technologists, nurse’s assistants, and patient transporters.
The union is demanding higher wages and lower health care costs as workers struggle with the cost of living in the high-cost communities where most of the UC campuses and hospitals are located, including Westwood, La Jolla, San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Irvine.
The strike would be a major blow to UC’s operations, and the largest system-wide work stoppage since 48,000 unionized academic staff, including teaching assistants, readers and graders, struck for nearly six weeks in 2022.
Last November, UC reached a contract agreement to avert a strike by 21,000 health care, research and technical professionals from the University Professional and Technical Employees Union and 25,000 members of the California Nurses Association. In March, 28,000 academic student workers represented by UAW 4811 also approved a new contract.
But negotiations between the UC and AFSCME, which regularly protests UC Board of Regents meetings and events with UC President James B. Milliken, have been strained. The union has held several one-day or multi-day strikes in recent years, but has not openly called off work.
The union said some members often fall behind on rent and resort to long commutes to avoid a lack of expensive housing near work, while others sleep in cars. The union is also demanding access to UC-administered housing programs, such as sub-market rate loans to purchase homes that are available to some faculty and senior staff.
In a statement, UC labor relations spokeswoman Heather Hansen said the university was “disappointed” in the decision to strike despite significant progress at the bargaining table. The University of California is focused on reaching an agreement that provides real, immediate benefits for employees and is sustainable in the long term.
Since bargaining began in January 2024, Hansen said UC has significantly increased its offers for pay increases and added a $1,000 contract ratification bonus. He pointed to a proposal to The Times salary chart This revealed long-term potential growth for the two categories of workers.
For example, a “senior custodian” now earns $70,789, which would rise to $89,201 in 2029 under the UC offer. A “hospital lab technician 3” now earns $88,200.00, which would increase to $111,139.76 under UC’s final proposal. Union leaders said the UC proposals would still leave members’ incomes overall lagging behind long-term inflation.
“UC has also added new caps and offsets to help manage longevity payments and rising health care costs for long-serving employees. This represents substantial movement and a good-faith effort to respond directly to employee priorities,” Hansen said. “An open strike is unnecessary and risks disruption to patients, students and campus operations,” he said.
The union said it planned the strike after filing two unfair labor practice charges against UC with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board.
One accused the UC of violating labor rules by not bargaining with the union over housing benefits it demanded. “Workers should not have to live out of their cars, work multiple jobs, or commute hours every day to put food on the table, while UC gives its more affluent senior executives and faculty cash for low-interest mortgages and down payments,” the union wrote to the board.
The second charge accuses UC of implementing “unilateral changes to the terms and conditions of employment” for union members. Last July, the university said it would automatically give raise raises to its lowest-paid employees, giving them $25 an hour or a 5% pay raise — whichever is greater. UC said it took this action after making its “last, best and final offer”.
In its filing, the union said the action was taken “without consideration” and hundreds of employees either did not receive salaries or were made to wait for months or receive pay increases. The union also alleged that UC implemented the new health care rates without providing an opportunity to bargain.
The board has not determined whether UC engaged in wrongdoing.
AFSCME 3299 President Michael Avant, who works as a patient transporter at UC San Diego Medical Center, joined union leaders to announce the strike during a Wednesday event at the UC San Francisco Mission Bay campus.
“We’re demanding millions of dollars in pay like they pay executives,” Avant said. “We are demanding the free homes they give VCs. We are asking California’s third largest employer to bargain with us in good faith. We know this will be disruptive to our students and patients. That’s why we are announcing this action a full month in advance, so our students and patients can prepare and plan ahead.”
The union has approximately 9,500 members at UCLA. They include Monica Martinez, a UCLA Medical Center clinical care worker who spoke with Avant.
“As a single mother, I thought I could eventually quit my second job… but the housing market had a different idea,” said Martínez, vice president of the union’s patient care unit. “Rent soon became unaffordable. I made do by living with my sister. Recently, my son and his young family moved in to help with costs. UC has taken agency away from me by refusing to discuss housing at the bargaining table.”
