Unions announce strike against UC for nationwide hiring freeze
University of California service and patient care workers will go on strike on May 1, their third joint action in the past academic year, over the UC’s systemwide hiring freeze.
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299, a labor union that represents UC service and patient care workers, will mount an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike on May 1, according to a press release. Pickets will take place at the 10 UC campuses and five medical centers.
The strike comes after the union filed two new ULPs against the UC, alleging it failed to provide notice or bargain over the hiring freeze and its effect on short-staffed frontline workers, and for denying benefits to workers absorbed by the University’s acquisition of six Southern California hospitals.
“The University has publicly acknowledged that staff vacancies have tripled since the Pandemic, which has also fueled an exodus of thousands more frontline UC employees from their jobs due to burnout, uncompetitive job quality, and chronic understaffing,” AFSCME Local 3299 President Michael Avant said in the press release. “Amidst UC’s buying spree of new hospitals, its illegal hiring freeze and denial of certain benefits to workers at newly acquired facilities, will only serve to make these problem worse, and will jeopardize the quality of services our patients and students depend on in the bargain.”
University Professional and Technical Employees, Communications Workers of America (UPTE-CWA) Local 9119, representing 20,000 research and professional workers, have also filed charges against UC and will join the May 1 strike. UC Santa Barbara workers will go on strike from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Storke Tower.
Graduate students allege biometric tracking used in visa terminations
Hundreds of international students’ visas and resident statuses have been revoked or terminated nationally in the past week. Across the UC, 90 student visas have been revoked.
Students at UC Berkeley told the Daily Californian that the Berkeley International Office reported their visas had been revoked due to a “criminal record.” Online message boards, Discord servers and web forums where international students posted show that the State Department regularly cited driving offenses and misdemeanors — even when released without charges — as reasons for termination, according to the Daily Cal.
The Trump administration has not yet identified specific criteria for status information, though Secretary of State Marco Rubio said individuals who hold views in opposition to the state’s foreign and national interests are targets, according to a March 28 press briefing.
Students who organized an anonymous online form to track visa issues nationwide found that 90% of students whose Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) records were terminated had been fingerprinted by law enforcement during their residency in the United States, the Daily Cal found. SEVIS tracks and monitors nonimmigrant students and exchange visitors residing in the country, while visas control entry into the United States. The form collected 225 total responses, with 135 reporting visa revocation or termination.
Being fingerprinted doesn’t mean there has been a criminal conviction, but those who are arrested, even if no charges are filed, are fingerprinted as a procedural standard.
“It’s about a system that quietly strips people of legal status,” the anonymous form organizer said to the Daily Cal. “One fingerprint from a traffic stop, even when charges are dismissed, can trigger a process that uproots someone’s entire life.”
A version of this article appeared on p. 2 of the Apr. 17, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.
