Thousands of University of California Workers Threaten Statewide Strike

Thousands of University of California Workers Threaten Statewide Strike

This is almost becoming an annual event at this point. Witness the merger of unions and academia.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

40,000 UC workers threaten statewide strike across hospitals, campuses, dining halls

A union representing more than 40,000 workers across the University of California campuses and medical centers announced Wednesday that it would launch an open-ended strike next month unless its contract demands are met, opening up the possibility of postponed medical procedures, limited cleaning at hospitals and campuses and reductions in undergraduate dining services.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 3299 (AFSCME) union’s membership covers essential workers including custodians, food service staff in campus dining halls and hospital cafeterias, gardeners, and skilled craft workers including plumbers and electricians. In hospitals, the employees serve as patient care workers such as radiology technologists, nurse’s aides and patient transporters.

The union is demanding higher wages and lower healthcare costs as workers struggle with living expenses in the high-cost communities where most 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 would be the largest system-wide work stoppage since 48,000 unionized academic workers — including teaching assistants, readers, and graders — hit the picket line for nearly six weeks in 2022.

Last November, UC reached contract agreements to avert strikes by 21,000 healthcare, research and technical professionals in the University Professional and Technical Employees union and 25,000 members of the California Nurses Association. In March, 28,000 Academic Student Employees represented by UAW 4811 also approved a new contract.

But negotiations between UC and AFSCME, which routinely protests UC Board of Regents meetings and at events with UC President James B. Milliken, have become strained. The union has mounted multiple one-day or multi-day strikes in recent years but has not held an open-ended work stoppage.

The union said some members often fall behind on rent and resort to long commutes to cut back on high-cost housing near work, while others sleep in cars. The union is also asking for access to UC-administered housing programs, such as sub-market rate loans for home purchases that are available to certain faculty and senior employees.

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