Some 37,000 employees of the University of California started a two-day strike on Wednesday, months after rejecting the latest offer.
The strike across 10 campuses, five medical centers, and labs came as a result of what the service and patient care workers union alleges is unfair bargaining. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 3299 union filed a complaint to the Public Employment Relations Board when UC raised premiums by 2% and copays by 50%, among other changes, without informing its employees.
Negotiations haven’t taken place since May, when the AFSCME rejected a contract with a $25 an hour minimum wage and a 5% raise beginning July 1. Instead, the patient workers’ contract expired on July 31, and the service workers’ contract expired on Oct. 31.
“Instead of being a constructive and transparent partner seeking to bring us closer to agreement, UC has sought to drive us farther apart by consistently being unprepared, unresponsive, and by announcing plans to sidestep the bargaining process altogether and unilaterally impose huge increases in employee healthcare costs,” Local 3299 President Michael Avant said in a statement.
UC denies wrongdoing.
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The strike is meant to protest this alleged unfair practice and will end on Thursday at 6 p.m. Pacific time. Fellow union University Professional and Technical Employees also announced a strike among its 4,000 members.
The number of union workers who qualify for government-subsidized housing has tripled since 2017, according to the AFSCME. Some chose to commute multiple hours or sleep in their cars to afford to work for the university. All the while, UC CFO Nathan Brostrom said vacancy rates have only increased since before the pandemic.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
