UC Workers Strike to Protest Cost of Living Crisis and Contract Issues

UC Workers Stage Strike Amid Rising Living Costs

In a bold move that underscores the financial struggles of many, nearly 40,000 employees of the University of California system participated in a two-day strike this week. The action was a direct response to the university's inability to negotiate contracts that address the increasing cost of living faced by its most financially vulnerable workers.

Represented by AFSCME Local 3299, service and patient care technical workers ceased operations across all UC campuses and medical centers on Monday and Tuesday. This group includes custodians, food service workers, patient care assistants, and hospital technicians who have been working without a contract for over a year.

Michael Avant, President of Local 3299 and an AFSCME vice president, criticized the university's priorities, stating, "During nearly two years of bargaining, UC has spent billions of dollars acquiring new facilities, lavishing exorbitant raises on its wealthiest executives and funding housing assistance programs to help... ivory tower elites... but it won’t offer its front-line workers enough to pay the rent or keep pace with the skyrocketing cost of groceries.” Several candidates for California’s governor also joined the strikers in solidarity.

Recent media reports have highlighted the severe affordability crisis affecting these essential UC workers. Research has shown that many have been priced out of local housing markets due to stagnant wages that haven't kept up with inflation, leading to a rise in staff vacancies that endangers student services and patient care.

This strike occurs as UC's latest financial reports indicate significant growth in revenues and assets over the past decade, with cash reserves on campuses multiplying five-fold. Despite this financial growth, the university has invested in multiple hospital acquisitions, expanded housing assistance for top executives, and granted massive raises to senior executives.

Michael Avant further remarked on the situation, "During the pandemic, UC administrators routinely called us ‘essential heroes.’ We were the ones sanitizing facilities to slow the spread, answering the call button, and giving sick patients their breathing treatments. Today, we’re being excluded from housing assistance that UC gives to its wealthiest employees; being told to accept wages that offer less purchasing power than we had seven or eight years ago and being told that we should pay twice as much for our health insurance. It’s time for UC to get its priorities straight, and to treat us with the respect we’ve earned.”