The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees went on strike on Nov. 17 and 18, picketing at various locations across the UC Santa Barbara campus. The strike is in response to a two-year-long contract negotiation, alleging that the University of California is engaging in bad faith bargaining.
Workers went up to the fifth floor of Cheadle Hall, where the Office of the Chancellor is located. Jack Dindia / Daily Nexus
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) 3299 is the University of California’s (UC) largest employee union, representing around 86,000 service and patient care workers. Their demands include “livable” wages to “attract and retain staff,” affordable healthcare, housing benefits that “high earners already receive” and secure staffing.
According to their website, they are “striking because UC has failed to address the unaffordability of life.” Additionally, they said that they are concerned about inequality in regard to how the UC “gives out raises and housing benefits to a bloated layer of top administrators at the expense of its lowest-paid workers.”
The UC released a statement on Nov. 14, where they said they implemented key terms from “its last, best, and final offer” to ensure adequate working conditions. These terms include AFSCME-represented employees earning at least $25 an hour and receiving up to $1,500 per year in health care.
The UC also claimed AFSCME has “not presented any substantive counterproposals since April 2025.”
“Absent AFSCME’s engagement, the University cannot engage in meaningful negotiations for this critical workforce. Nonetheless, we remain hopeful and committed to working towards a fair and sustainable agreement that supports our employees and advances the University’s mission of service, education, and research,” the statement read.
Approximately 146 UC Santa Barbara service workers halted their work and stationed themselves at Storke Tower from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. both days of the strike. They rallied multiple times, passing through the Arbor walkway, the Visitor Center and Cheadle Hall.
Despite rainy conditions, AFSCME 3299 started rallying across campus at 8 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 17. The strikers made their way to Cheadle Hall and eventually entered the building where AFSCME executive board member and groundskeeper at UCSB, Serafin Zamora, instructed workers not to use bells or megaphones, as he said remaining respectful was a “good chance” to show UCSB’s new chancellor, Dennis Assanis, “why [AFSCME 3299] is here.”
Workers then made their way to the fifth floor of Cheadle Hall, where the Office of the Chancellor is located. Workers circled around the floor chanting, “Whose university? Our university,” “We fight it up, can’t take it no more” and “UC UC you’re no good, treat your workers like you should.”
Zamora then clarified outside of the Office of the Chancellor that AFSCME is asking for “fair housing,” specifying that they’d like assistance in purchasing homes. Zamora also highlighted that the UC Board of Regents recently approved a $7.8 million house for UCSB chancellors, fully funded by University donors.
“Just remember, this person right here, the Chancellor, [has] power. He is a new chancellor, but he’s making almost about [$900,000],” Zamora said. “Now UCSB [provided] a loan of [$7.8 million] to buy a house, when you and me [have] to commute every day.”
Afterward, they went on to rally at the Visitor Center, where they took a break due to weather conditions. Once they migrated back to their base at Storke Tower, several guest speakers delivered speeches including Jeremy Goldberg, the executive director of the Central Coast Labor Council and a representative from the Santa Barbara Tenants Union.
Goldberg said the reason he came to speak to AFSCME 3299 is that he claimed the University “doesn’t respect [AFSCME] enough.” He continued by emphasizing the importance of labor unions standing up for their demands.
“One of these days, we’re gonna stop having to come out and do this every year, multiple times a year,” Goldberg said. “But for now, we just have one choice, and that’s to stand together and be as loud as we can, stand in solidarity across the entire labor movement to make sure you get the respect that you have earned through the work that you do here every day.”
Next, a representative from Santa Barbara Tenants Union spoke on how UCSB should be meeting the housing demands of AFSCME 3299, considering that there’s currently a housing affordability crisis.
“Our county currently has about 2000 units that are currently not being rented. So building, building, building is not going to solve the problem,” they said. “What’s going to solve the problem is people being able to afford the units that are vacant. And how do we afford those units? By having livable wages, by having housing support.”
She then spoke about the approval of the new residence for UCSB chancellors and the increasing wage for chancellors, which she considers “unacceptable” given the increasing budget cuts to the UC.
Approximately 146 UC Santa Barbara service workers halted their work and stationed themselves at Storke Tower. Julian Panganiban / Daily Nexus
On Tuesday, the rally began at 8 a.m. and looped all across campus. The strikers picketed from Storke Tower to Henley Gate before heading back around the roundabout. They then picketed along the walkway by the Chemistry Lawn.
After the rally, many individuals held signs and banners reading “fighting for patients, students, futures” by the lawn next to Storke Tower, directly in front of bikers and passersby on the bike paths and walkway.
According to AFSCME organizing intern and second-year sociology major Meadows Stevens, striking is the “last option” that unions choose when “UC or the administration isn’t taking them seriously.”
“Our chancellor should not be receiving a pay of $421 an hour while our workers are barely fighting for $25 an hour while they’re putting in hard labor working, coming in as early as 4 a.m.,” Stevens said. “Which is not just if they’re not being paid the correct wages that they are owed.”
In regard to collaborating with other activist groups, Stevens said it’s important to acknowledge that “the root of all these social justice causes is the corruption in our government.”
“We are the ones who are leading this movement, and we are the ones continuously who will be out here, because UC will not understand how they should treat their workers on their own, and that is very sad and is very unfortunate,” Stevens said.
Fourth-year economics major Gabriel Barona, who is training to become an AFSCME intern, highlighted the importance of intersectionality across marginalized communities, as they are ultimately fighting the “same fight.” He also spoke about the University’s budgetary priorities, and how they’re representative of “where their interests are really at.”
“Workers are out there struggling. Struggling to pay their bills, struggling to pay for health care, struggling just to survive, and the school obviously has the money. Not only did they pay $8 million for this chancellor’s home, but they’re also sitting on billions of dollars of unused funds that they could use to pay for these things,” Barona said.
Stevens stressed the importance of students being informed and involved regarding labor union strikes.
“It is really our duty as students when we have the capacity to come out, not only to strike, but to also educate one another and realize that we’re all in this together,” Stevens said.
Senior lead of the Facilities and Planning at UCSB Francisco Garcia, who has been employed at UCSB for 29 years, said the University should “already know” that workers need proper healthcare and raises. He said the UC hasn’t negotiated with AFSCME 3299 since April, and that “it’s time they come back to the table and give us what we deserve.”
Garcia said that the UC’s funding of the chancellor’s new home doesn’t “line up,” considering they claim they don’t have the funds to build homes for workers.
“How does that work? Like you really don’t have the money? They’re buying hospitals throughout the state, not just in Santa Barbara or Los Angeles or San Diego; it’s throughout the whole state, and that equals to billions of dollars. So I just think that they have the money. They have the money, definitely,” Garcia said.
Fifth-year psychological and brain studies major and External Vice President for Statewide Affairs Leiya Kadah emphasized the importance of workers in the operation of UC campuses. She said that, if all labor workers were to leave, the UC would have “24 to 48 hours before they had to shut down.”
“If people can’t afford to live and work and just generally live in the university areas, then the University doesn’t run. It’s not even a question of whether they can or can’t go and find the money and proper budgets for these workers. It’s [that] they have to, or else they’re going to see [a shutdown],” Kadah said.
Professor Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies brought around 100 of his students from his “Introduction to Chicano History” course to the rally. In class, Armbruster-Sandoval had been lecturing about activist moments where “people crossed the line to step up and stand up for the right thing,” and invited students to come witness the strike.
“We’ve been talking about labor issues all along in class, and particularly labor issues by Chicano, Mexican, Latino folks,” Armbruster-Sandoval said. “So it’s kind of an outgrowth of our class. We’ve been talking about this, and it gave us an opportunity to put into action what we’ve been learning about.”
According to Armbruster-Sandoval, students should be concerned about the demands that AFSCME is advocating for because the strike could have a potential effect on their family members and other people they care about. Sandoval said that he has met and spoken to many of his students, who are “Chicano Latinos” and have parents who work in the service industry to support their families.
“A lot of students, they’re coming from those kinds of backgrounds — they have strong moms, they have strong grandmas — and they’ve been supporting them all along in their educational journey,” Armbruster-Sandoval said. “They’re like, ‘How can I not be out here? It’d be like disrespecting my parents by not joining the strike.’”
Armbruster-Sandoval says that he believes that University administration should listen and respond to demands in order to meet workers’ needs.
“Somebody in Cheadle Hall should come out here and talk to the workers and find out what they’re experiencing, listen to them [respectfully], start negotiating and start getting a good contract,” Armbruster-Sandoval said. “Make sure that these workers don’t leave because some of them have been working here for 10, 15, 20 years, and they want to stay here. They love working here if they’re treated properly.”
A version of this article appeared on p. 1 of the Nov. 20 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
