40,000 UC workers strike, disrupting medical services, cafeterias across campuses

The University of California is looking for a major strike Thursday that will disrupt services across campuses, hospitals and medical centers as more than 40,000 workers — transport workers, nurses, custodians, campus dining hall workers — plan to walk out if an agreement is not reached.

The threatened strike may cancel or delay many medical appointments, although hospitals and medical offices will remain open, and will reduce dining facility operations. UC campuses and hospitals are developing emergency plans and communicating with patients, students, faculty and staff about potential disruptions.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 remains deep in contract negotiations and has not reached an agreement with UC. The union is about to launch an open-ended strike that its leaders say will not end until their demands are met for better wages, lower health care costs and open talks with UC about how the university can help reduce housing costs.

UC has said it is committed to raising wages, offering contract confirmation bonuses and increasing health care premiums. When the union announced the strike nearly a month ago, a UC spokesman said the university was “disappointed” by the decision “despite the significant progress made at the bargaining table.”

The union said picket lines and rallies will begin at 8 a.m. Thursday at all UC campuses and medical centers, including the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. The threatened strike will be the culmination of more than two years of contract negotiations after several one-day strikes.

What jobs do AFSCME members hold?

AFSCME members include janitors, janitors, cafeteria workers, transportation workers and skilled trades workers such as plumbers and electricians. At UC Hospitals, union members work in cafeterias, as radiology technicians, nursing assistants and patient transporters, among other roles.

UCLA Health and the David Geffen School of Medicine were “developing plans to minimize disruption to campus and clinical operations,” and all UCLA Health hospitals and clinics “will remain open and operational,” officials said in a Monday announcement.

The message did not specify whether procedures, surgeries or imaging would be rescheduled, or details on how work including care services would be performed.

At UC Santa Cruz, Interim Campus Provost Paul Koch said in a statement from the center that the strike “will have a significant impact” on health services, transportation and restaurants, with dining halls operating under “reduced staff” and the Student Health Center “reduced staffing hours and services.”

When the union held a two-day strike in November, many UCLA dining halls closed, some offered takeout service amid long student lines, and students turned to food trucks for meals.

Union demands

The union is asking for higher wages, lower health care costs and the right to negotiate housing benefits. Leaders say some members sleep in their cars to be close to work, and fall behind on hiring by taking long commutes after moving away because they can’t afford housing near campuses, especially in Los Angeles and the Bay Area.

In a Monday update on the negotiations posted on its website, UC said it had offered a “very sweet” deal to give members up to 34% in wages over a three-year contract. The proposal offered a $2,000 confirmation bonus and caps on HMO premium increases that UC said could save members up to $3,000 each year in health care costs.

“We know that workers want certainty, stability and meaningful economic support, and UC remains committed to reaching an agreement that puts more money in workers’ pockets and provides long-term support to address insolvency,” wrote Missy Matella, UC’s vice president for overall labor and employee relations, in a statement.

The union contends that UC is misrepresenting who will get a raise and by how much, arguing that the examples do not represent a membership with an average salary of $62,000. It says rising health care costs will wipe out any wage gains. It also says that UC has not responded to its requests to open discussions on how to help members who are struggling with housing.

The wage increase “doesn’t work for a third of the members,” said AFSCME 3299 spokesman Todd Stenhouse. Stenhouse said the UC offer would leave members “left behind.”

“In real wages, they’re making 10% less than they did 10 years ago. So you’ve got people living on a razor’s edge making less,” Stenhouse said, citing inflation and health care costs among other areas.

The threatened allegations come after the union filed two complaints with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board.

One accuses UC of refusing to negotiate its housing needs, arguing that workers “shouldn’t be living out of their cars” while UC offers “low-interest loans and cash to pay off its top and richest executives.”

The second accuses UC of imposing “unilateral changes to employment terms and conditions,” including a July move to automatically raise employees to $25 an hour or offer a 5% pay raise — whichever was higher — after the university issued its “last, best and final offer.”

The union said the layoffs were carried out in a “scattered manner,” with hundreds not receiving raises or months of waiting, and the UC alleging new health care prices without negotiation.

The labor board has yet to decide whether UC did wrong.

‘To continue … to strike is to sacrifice’

Union members said the strike was a last resort.

“I deserve long-term stability. Not short-term tricks and tactics,” said Rosalba Montoya, a medical assistant at UCLA, in a recent statement posted on the union’s social media. “Participating in an open strike is a sacrifice, but it is what will bear fruit in the end.”

At a recent UC Board of Regents meeting at UCLA, one AFSCME member told the board: “You guys keep giving us crumbs. I don’t have a house of my own. I have an emergency other than being on the street and yet you tell us there’s no money, no solution, no real effort to address the housing crisis, or provide a living wage.”

The union also received messages of support from several elected officials.

Sen. Adam Schiff, in a video this month on the X account of AFSCME 3299, called on the UC to “trade honestly.”

In a social media video addressed to union members, Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry said she hoped the UC would reach an agreement that “respects the work you do with the patients you care for every day.”