Quick Take
More than 37,000 University of California system workers from two different unions, including hundreds of custodial and transportation workers at UC Santa Cruz, are preparing to strike Nov. 20-21 after filing unfair labor practice complaints. UC officials say the strike announcement is “disheartening.”
Two University of California system unions, representing workers in research labs, patient care sectors and custodial and transportation services, will go on strike Nov. 20 and 21.
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299 represents 37,000 patient care and custodial and transportation workers – including more than 27 patient care workers and 474 custodial and transportation workers at UC Santa Cruz.
AFSCME spokesperson Todd Stenhouse told Lookout that UCSC workers will be participating in the strike.
The second union, the University Professional and Technical Employees-CWA Local 9119 (UPTE), represents about 19,000 UC system workers, including physician assistants, pharmacists, mental health clinicians and information technology workers, but won’t be participating statewide. Its membership, which at UCSC includes 232 workers, will be striking only at the UC San Francisco Medical Center on Nov. 20-21.
Both unions filed unfair labor practice claims with the California Public Employment Relations Board against the UC system, alleging that it engaged in illegal bad-faith bargaining.
“By refusing to bargain in good faith, the University has made it clear that it does not value the front-line workers who clean its facilities, serve students food, and treat patients,” said AFSCME Local 3299 President Michael Avant in a release. “If UC refuses to meet its most basic legal responsibilities to employees, we will hold them accountable by exercising our legal right to strike.”
It’s been more than a year since the AFSCME Local 3299 union began contract negotiations. The UC system’s contract with patient care workers expired July 31 and its contract with service workers expired Oct. 31.
AFSCME 3299 representatives say a staff vacancy crisis is causing the quality of services and care to deteriorate. Its unfair labor practice claim accuses the UC system of being unprepared in negotiations and being “unresponsive, and by announcing plans to sidestep the bargaining process altogether and unilaterally impose huge increases in employee health care costs.”
UC officials say the announced strikes are “disheartening.”
“We fundamentally disagree with AFSCME’s claims of bad faith bargaining and characterization of unacceptable bargaining proposals,” UC officials wrote in a Nov. 8 statement. “We remain willing and open to meet with AFSCME to negotiate terms of their contract, and hopeful for a quick resolution.”
On Thursday, UC officials said in a statement, “UPTE’s announcement to strike at UC San Francisco is premature and not consistent with the hard work that continues at the table to reach a fair agreement. UC denies the allegations stated in UPTE’s unfair labor practice charge and will file a response that outlines its good faith bargaining efforts throughout these negotiations.”
UC officials wrote that they had bargaining sessions scheduled with UPTE on Thursday and Friday this week and next month.
Lookout sought comment from UCSC spokesperson Scott Hernandez-Jason about how the Santa Cruz campus is responding and preparing for the AFSCME strike, but didn’t immediately get a response.
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