86,000 University of California employees plan massive strike

In what could become one of the largest labor protests in University of California history, more than 86,000 nurses, healthcare professionals and campus employees (including those at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley) plan to stage a protest. leave work this month accuses the university of neglecting its lowest-paid employees while rewarding those at the top.

UC officials have harshly opposed those claims, arguing that the unions’ wage and benefit demands go beyond what the university can responsibly meet.

The two-day strike is planned for Nov. 17-18 and will affect 18 UC healthcare facilities across the state, including the UCSF Mission Bay and Parnassus campuses, UC Berkeley and Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland.

It brings together members of three major unions: AFSCME Local 3299, UPTE-CWA Local 9119 and the California Nurses Association, which says the UC system is failing to offer contracts that reflect the rising cost of living in California’s most expensive areas.

AFSCME, which represents nearly 40,000 service and patient care technical workers, says many of its members are being priced out of the communities where they work because their wages lag behind inflation.

“During nearly two years of negotiations, the UC has spent billions of dollars buying new facilities, giving exorbitant raises to its wealthiest executives, and funding housing assistance programs to help those same ivory tower elites buy mansions or second homes — but will not offer its front-line workers enough to pay the rent or keep up with skyrocketing food costs,” union president Michael Avant said in a statement. he said.

UPTE-CWA, which represents 21,000 health, research and technical professionals, said the strike was aimed at drawing attention to what it called a growing staffing crisis that threatens both patient care and university research.

Approximately 25,000 nurses represented by the California Nurses Association will join the strike in solidarity.

Union leaders say the situation has reached breaking point. More than a third of UC’s service and patient care technical workers have left their jobs in the past three years due to low wages and long commutes, AFSCME officials said in a statement.

“I worry that if things don’t change, more UC workers will become homeless,” Ruth Zolayvar, a pharmacy technician at UC San Diego, said in a statement. “Surviving shouldn’t be this hard.”

The University of California, which held separate meetings with three unions, Condemns planned strike “An attempt to pressure the university to accept unreasonable wage and benefit demands that would place UC in a financially precarious position and jeopardize its mission of teaching, research, and public service.”

The university said in a statement that it had been negotiating in good faith for more than a year and submitted “strong, competitive offers” that included wage increases, health care subsidies and improved benefits.

“UC has consistently demonstrated its readiness to negotiate, compromise and implement real improvements that reflect our true value for our people,” the statement said.

The University of California said that its hospitals and clinics will remain open during the strike, but some surgeries and appointments may be delayed.

Meanwhile, union leaders said they are forming a “patient protection task force” to ensure critical care workers can respond to emergencies when necessary.

This article was first published at: ‘UC workers will be homeless’: 86,000 University of California workers plan massive strike.