- Miles Kofman | Staff
- Feb 25, 2025 (DailyCal.org)
The local American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 3299, or AFSCME, and University Professional and Technical Employees 9119, or UPTE, are set to go on strike starting Wednesday.
AFSCME 3299 is striking through Feb. 27, and UPTE 9119 through Feb. 28 across all UC campuses, both alleging unfair labor practices imposed by the University of California. Negotiations between the university and both unions are currently at an impasse.
According to AFSCME, which represents health and service employees, the strike follows a Feb. 10 Unfair Practice Charge, which alleges that the university is attempting to silence workers for protesting against unlivable wages. AFSCME also alleges the university has “illegally attempted to silence workers” with rules aimed at people who have protested rising staff vacancies and declining wages.
“The university needs to follow the law and respect our union members,”said Executive Director of AFSCME Liz Perlman.“They need to respect the fact that they’re living in one of the most unaffordable places, and the university has failed to address their real needs with housing, healthcare and wages.”
AFSCME previously striked Nov. 20 and 21 with allegations against the university for not bargaining in good faith and cost of living concerns. The strike closed campus food locations, but essential services such as the urgent care center remained open. The university has plans to keep essential functions operational this time as well, according to UC Office of the President spokesperson Heather Hansen.
After the impasse was reached, a third-party factfinder, the Public Employment Relations Board, released a report Feb. 12, providing recommendations on the issues in contract negotiations. The report favored the UC system’s proposals on two-thirds of issues.
“The fact-finding reports favored the University of California proposals two to one and that demonstrates what we’ve been saying continuously we’ve been bargaining in good faith, and we are serious about settling this contract,” Hansen said.
However, the report is only meant to advise, and Perlman said that the report is nonbinding.
UPTE is also striking between Feb. 26 and 28, alleging unfair labor practices. The union represents 20,000 workers statewide, consisting mostly of health care, research and technical professionals,with approximately 1,200 of them from UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.The union claimed that the university failed to address understaffing that impacts research, patient care and student support.
They are also protesting against alleged unfair free speech restrictions put in place in 2024 which barred union members from protesting within 50 feet of a doorway or, in one instance, leafleting a walkway to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
“I could feel safe to say that many of our health care providers are not trying to get rich,”said UPTE member and UCSD clinical psychologist Michael McGlenn. “Because of our responsibility to our patients, it is important that we be able to speak out when we see things that are detrimental to the quality of that care, but instead of working with us to solve this problem UC has moved to restrict our ability to speak out and advocate for our patients.”
