- By Natalia Gurevich | Examiner staff writer |
- Nov 20, 2024 Updated Nov 21, 2024 (SFExaminer.com)
Thousands of health-care, research, patient-care, service and technical workers at UCSF’s Parnassus and Mission Bay campuses are striking this week.
The workers picketed in the rain Wednesday and were scheduled to demonstrate again Thursday after accusing the University of California of bargaining in bad faith and engaging in unfair labor practices in ongoing contract negotiations.
“This is not a decision to be made lightly, but for us, we see that patients are being impacted by this, and something’s got to change,” said Matt Stephen, a senior physician’s assistant in ear, nose, and throat medicine, referring to the rates of staff turnover and burnout that UCSF health-care workers say they have contended with since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Stephen is one of nearly 4,000 employees represented by University Professional and Technical Employees CWA Local 9119, which elected to conduct a two-day strike this week. They allege the statewide education giant has engaged in unfair labor practices and bad-faith bargaining since contract negotiations began in June.
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, meanwhile, represents more than 37,000 patient-care and service workers in the UC system. The union is also conducting strikes at UCSF, along with more than a dozen university campuses and medical systems across the state after nearly a year of negotiations over rising cost-of-living issues, health-care costs and similar staff-turnover concerns.
Contracts for both unions have expired, and each filed unfair labor practice charges against the school system with the California Public Employment Relations Board last month.
“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 students food, and treat patients,” AFSCME Local 3299 President Michael Avant said in a statement earlier this month. “If UC refuses to meet its most basic legal responsibilities to employees, we will hold them accountable by exercising our legal right to strike.”
Stephen said he has worked at UCSF for seven years, and he has heard from patients for “four years now” that patients are increasingly experiencing monthslong wait times. He said those are owed to staffing shortages.
UPTE CWA Local 9119 has asked the university system to hand over data showing the attrition rate of health-care workers across the UC system. The union claims the university system has refused to do.
“It’s one thing for me to say: ‘Here’s how I feel, here’s what I’m seeing anecdotally, here’s some of what the numbers we have are,’” said Stephen. “But we know UC has information on what the vacancies are. We would love to have that.”
A UC spokesperson pointed The Examiner to a statement made earlier this month alleging that this request for information “is not preventing the union from bargaining.”
“We have recently met with UPTE to review their request for vacancy rate information, attempting to ensure the information we are working to provide meets its interest and matches the data that the University has available,” the statement read. “UC will continue to work in good faith to provide UPTE with information.”
A spokesperson for UCSF told The Examiner in a written statement on Tuesday that both campuses were prepared with “contingency plans” for the strike and that care and services would not be interrupted by the labor election. However, some “elective procedures” have been rescheduled, cafeterias at both campuses are closing an hour earlier than usual at 7 p.m., and shuttle schedules have been modified.
“The UC Office of the President, not UCSF, negotiates with unions on behalf of the entire UC system,” the statement read. “The UC current offer includes significant annual wage increases, offsets for health care costs, and expanded vacation and sick leave, among other benefits.”
The strike has drawn the attention of local elected officials as well.
“The University of California is one of the most well-financially endowed educational institutions on the planet earth, and they have the ability to build multi-billion-dollar campuses,” San Francisco Board of Supervisors Aaron Peskin told The Examiner on Tuesday.
Peskin said he would join the picket line at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital at Mission Bay in support of the workers. He told The Examiner he was going not just as “Aaron coming to support some labor union.”
“I have a big interest as the President of the Board of Supervisors in stabilizing the UCSF workforce that San Francisco relies on in many ways, including through our affiliation agreement with the University of California by our Department of Public Health,” he said.
The City has a longstanding partnership with UCSF through Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. UCSF doctors staff the hospital and several programs run out of Zuckerberg, such as the Opiate Treatment Outpatient Program, which dispenses the opioid-addiction medication known as methadone.
“These people fill critical jobs that are profoundly important to San Francisco’s ability to deal with behavioral health issues that plague this city,” Peskin said.
One such employee is Robyn Miles, a clinical social worker at UCSF since 2012. On average, she said she and her colleagues have a caseload of about 17 people at a time, all of whom struggle with severe mental illness.
Miles said her tenure makes her an outlier on her team, with most colleagues burning out far sooner. She said clients and patients seeking treatment are those whom staffing shortages disrupt most.
“[When] they’re constantly seeing new faces of new clinicians, then it’s hard for them to trust us,” she said. “It’s hard for them to engage.”
Miles said turnover leads to diminishing institutional knowledge among the staff, requiring more hours spent training workers and, thus, less time working with clients.
Both Miles and Stephen said the main focus of the strike is to call upon UCSF to finally provide the data the union has been asking for. Once the union has that information, workers said, they feel that they can return to the bargaining table with a more accurate understanding of their needs.
“UCSF is one of the best jobs I’ve ever had,” Stephen said. “But there are so many things that should be improved and could be improved, and our hope is that UCSF will start bargaining with us in good faith.”
