UC Service and Patient Care Workers to Strike Over Unfair Labor Practices

CALIFORNIA, February 14, 2025 – After filing a new round of Unfair Labor Practice charges alleging that the University of California has illegally attempted to silence workers from protesting, leafleting, picketing, striking and otherwise expressing concerns about declining real wages and rising staff vacancies, AFSCME Local 3299 represented UC Service and Patient Care workers have announced that they will mount a second statewide ULP Strike over bad faith bargaining and interference with workers’ rights on February 26-27th. The strike affects more than 37,000 UC workers, and will occur at all ten university campuses and five medical centers.

“Instead of addressing the decline in real wages that has fueled the staff exodus at UC Medical Centers and Campuses at the bargaining table, UC has chosen to illegally implement arbitrary rules aimed at silencing workers who are raising concerns while limiting their access to union representatives,” said AFSCME Local 3299 President Michael Avant. “UC’s blatantly illegal actions are standing in the way of constructive negotiations on the acute affordability crisis plaguing its frontline employees, and that’s why workers will exercise their legal right to strike.”

While UC has granted massive raises and hundreds of millions of dollars in housing assistance to its highest paid employees over the past four years, more than 13,000 AFSCME 3299 represented UC service and patient care workers—more than a third of these vital workforce segments—have left the university as their real wages have declined and the cost of living skyrocketed. Instead of bargaining solutions, the University has imposed new rules that limit employees’ ability to speak out under threat of discipline or arrest.

“By refusing to bargain in good faith, the University has made it clear that it does not value the frontline workers who clean its facilities, serve food, and treat patients,” said AFSCME Local 3299 President Michael Avant. “UC’s efforts to illegally silence dissent from workers who are struggling the most is suggestive of an effort to concentrate even more power and wealth for its ivory tower elites. This is not a solution to the workforce supply and affordability problems facing this institution, but a glaring symptom of the problem that is driving workers onto picket lines.”

AFSCME Local 3299 has been working to negotiate successor contracts for more than 37,000 service and patient care workers for nearly a year. The existing contract for Patient Care workers expired on July 31st, and the contract for Service workers expired on October 31st.

In 2023, the UC CFO Nathan Brostrom told the UC Board of Regents that the university’s staff vacancy rate had tripled since before the pandemic. Research has since detailed a decline in real wages and a growing housing affordability crisis plaguing the university’s frontline health and service workforce, leaving many to endure multi-hour commutes, or sleep in their cars. The share of this workforce that would be income eligible for limited government housing subsidies has nearly tripled since 2017

“UC’s continued unlawful actions hurt both the workers it routinely praised as ‘heroes’ during the pandemic, and the students and patients we are here to serve,” added Local 3299’s ULP Committee Chair Monica Martinez. “It is past time for the university to change course, to respect the rights of the frontline workers who make this institution run and to finally bargain in good faith.”

Strike Times & Locations:
https://afscme3299.org/blog/strikefeb-2025/

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AFSCME Local 3299 represents more than 37,000 Service and Patient Care Technical workers at UC’s 10 campuses, 5 medical centers, numerous clinics, & research laboratories.

https://afscme3299.org/media/release-university-of-california-service-and-patient-care-workers-to-strike-over-unfair-labor-practices-feb-26th-and-27th/