Following their first joint strike in late February, two unions, including service workers, health care employees and other University of California employees, went on strike again on Tuesday. Through wind and rainfall, workers rallied across campus for roughly eight hours, demanding the University of California offer “fair” worker contracts and bargain in good faith.
The group continued toward Campbell Hall and the Student Affairs building from approximately 9:45 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Bryce Hutchins / Daily Nexus
University Professional and Technical Employees, Communications Workers of America (UPTE-CWA) Local 9119, which represents 20,000 research lab and medical facility workers, claims the University has engaged in “bad-faith bargaining” by not responding to proposals or offering inadequate proposals for demands.
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) 3299, the largest University of California (UC) employee union representing over 37,000 service workers, skill craft workers, patient care technical workers and more within the UC, went on strike for better contracts, also in solidarity with UPTE.
Their last joint strike took place from Feb. 26-27, and since then they have claimed the University refuses to bargain with workers about pay scales and other issues, specifically research and development engineers and others with non-union titles who recently joined UPTE.
“We are looking for a fair contract and compensation has not kept up with the cost of living, so a lot of us are feeling the crunch,” UPTE chair and licensed clinical social worker at UC Santa Barbara Student Health Brandi McCallister said.
Contracts for AFSCME workers expired last year, leading to union demands for increased pay and decreased healthcare costs.
UPTE-CWA filed two unfair labor charges against the UC on March 17 for bargaining in bad faith. They accused the UC of being unwilling to increase pay scales for new union members after trying to bargain for two to three years and for proposing increases to health care premiums after contracts expired at the start of the year without consulting the union.
“Both unions have a history of filing unfair labor practice charges and striking. For example, AFSCME went on strike six times during their last contract negotiations in 2019,” UC Office of the President (UCOP) Communications Strategist Heather Hansen said in a statement to the Nexus. “Filing a[n] [Unfair Labor Practice charge] does not mean there has been a finding of wrongdoing by the university. And we disagree wholeheartedly with their claims.”
The systemwide strike spanned the full 24 hours on April 1. Workers at UCSB started preparing to rally around 6 a.m.
At 9 a.m., the unions began marching from Storke Tower to the Arbor, assembling in a circle before the library steps. They chanted, “Whose university? Our university” and “UPTE on strike, all day all night.” After chanting for about 20 minutes, the group marched past the library and the Chemistry Lawn, passing under the Engineering Science Building. Their march halted at Steck Circle in front of Henley Gate to chant in front of cars passing by.
“The message here is to show the University that we are not stopping until we get what we deserve,” AFSCME 3299 Service Unit Vice President Francisco Garcia, who has worked at UCSB for 29 years in the custodial department, said. “They’re in the same fight as us, we’re in the same fight.”
The group continued toward Campbell Hall and the Student Affairs building from approximately 9:45 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., circling both areas while chanting. Samuel Feinstein, staff research associate and UCSB bargainer for UPTE, delivered speeches outlining the unions’ collective demands and criticizing UC’s bargaining methods. They returned to Storke Tower around 11 a.m. for a break.
Contracts for AFSCME workers expired last year. Bryce Hutchins / Daily Nexus
Michael Benaron, an UPTE media spokesperson and certified physician assistant at UCSB Student Health, said the statewide staffing crisis also contributes to a lack of necessary campus health care services.
“Specifically here on campus, I’m seeing that with our services that we’re rendering towards students, … we don’t have adequate positions that are filled to the number of patients and students we have on campus,” Benaron said.
At around 1 p.m., workers marched toward the Humanities and Social Sciences Building, accompanied by a mariachi band, and stopped in front of the Student Health building. They chanted, “What’s this about? Patient care” and “When workers are outside, there’s something wrong on the inside” before turning back and marching to the Student Resource Building.
About 20 minutes later, marchers made their way back to Storke Tower, receiving cheers from observers near the Counseling & Psychological Services (C.A.P.S.) building. The rally concluded around 2 p.m.
A UC fact sheet on UPTE negotiations says turnover rates for employees represented by UPTE are below the national average, separation — or turnover — rates are declining and the number head count of employees has increased by 13% since 2022. Hansen said this information has been shared with the union.
In a press release, UPTE Communications Director Andrew Baker said the UC hasn’t shared vacancy rates by job classification for over two years. He said the UC’s head count numbers don’t take into account the new hospitals and absorption of staff which the UC has acquired in the last year.
“[UCOP] tried to redirect to discussion of turnover rates, and even then incorrectly calculated that statistic by using the total number of employees in a fiscal year rather than the average,” Baker said. “The issue that UC seems to be avoiding is not whether the number of UPTE employees has grown, but how many positions UC has left unfilled as a proportion of the total budgeted positions for a title, department or unit of choice in a defined time period.”
In a statement issued April 1, the UC said it has met with AFSCME and UPTE to settle these contracts for months, stating they offered “generous wage increases, monthly credits to reduce health care expenses for lower-wage earners, expanded sick leave, and improved ability to schedule vacation time” to AFSCME more than a year ago and UPTE eight months ago.
“More importantly, our proposals have been designed to specifically address the top priorities that union members have identified as most important. These strikes cost the University system millions of dollars, at a time when federal and state funding is uncertain,” the statement read.
Feinstein projected the unions’ next steps, should the UC agree to bargain in good faith.
“Before, we were meeting with them four days of every month, and people from every UC campus would come, and we’d meet at different UC campuses, and then we could actually hammer out an agreement. But they’re not giving us anything in good faith, so we can’t do it,” Feinstein said.
According to Hansen, the UC and AFSCME are scheduled to meet in the coming weeks.
“What we’re hoping is UC wants to fix some of these issues we’re shedding light on and addressing meaningfully our concerns,” Benaron said. “We want to bargain, we want to negotiate, but we have these concerns that the UC has not been addressing.”
