AFSCME Local 3299 Reaches Tentative Agreement, Averting UC Strike

University of California Workers Face Historic Strike Amidst Contract Disputes

Editor’s note: The strike was averted after the University of California system and AFSCME Local 3299 negotiators reached a last-minute tentative agreement, which must be ratified by the membership. Details to come.

LOS ANGELES – A potential historic strike looms as approximately 42,000 service and patient care workers, represented by AFSCME Local 3299, prepare to cease work across the University of California system. These workers, who have been without a contract for two years, are planning an open-ended strike due to unresolved unfair labor practices.

This impending strike, scheduled to commence on May 14, marks a significant escalation in the ongoing struggle for better wages, housing assistance, and affordable healthcare. Local 3299 has previously engaged in limited-duration strikes over these issues, but this would be the first indefinite strike within the UC health care network's history.

“For more than three years, AFSCME 3299 has worked to negotiate successor agreements that address the acute affordability crisis facing the university’s front-line service and patient care workforce,” said Local 3299 President Michael Avant, who’s also an AFSCME vice president. “Instead of bargaining in good faith, UC has illegally imposed terms that leave us further behind and refused to bargain over the housing crisis that has left our members sleeping in their cars and living in homeless shelters. We have been left with no choice but to strike.”

Local 3299 represents various service workers such as custodians, groundskeepers, and food service workers, along with patient care personnel including medical assistants and MRI technicians. The strike is set to impact all ten UC campuses, medical centers, research labs, clinics, and additional UC facilities statewide unless a resolution is reached.

Despite the announcement of the strike a month earlier, which provided UC management with time to negotiate or formulate a contingency plan, no new contract has been agreed upon, nor have the unfair labor practice issues been addressed. Avant emphasized, “Our team continues to bargain in good faith, but thus far talks have fallen short on core economic issues, including housing and health care costs that would leave many members worse off and unable to afford the same quality of care they deliver every day.”

While most of the workforce is preparing to strike, critical care workers have been exempted to ensure essential services continue. Additionally, Local 3299 has established a patient protection task force to coordinate with UC hospitals, ensuring emergency support is available if UC’s contingency plans fall short.