5 days Ago
SANTA CRUZ — Service workers with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union, or AFSCME Local 3299 at UC Santa Cruz and across the University of California system, will strike Wednesday and Thursday after voting earlier this month to authorize an unfair labor practices strike against UC. AFSCME Local 3299 represents service employees working at UC Santa Cruz and other University of California locations in areas such as patient care, dining, custodial services, transportation and more. According to a statement from the union, the strike affects more than 37,000 UC workers and will take place at all 10 university campuses and five medical centers.
The vote to strike follows formal charges filed by the union with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board, alleging that the UC has engaged in illegal bad faith bargaining after nearly a year of negotiations. “By refusing to bargain in good faith, the University has made it clear that it does not value the frontline workers who clean its facilities, serve students food and treat patients,” said AFSCME Local 3299 President Michael Avant in a statement. “If UC refuses to meet its most basic legal responsibilities to employees, we will hold them accountable by exercising our legal right to strike.
” In its unfair labor practice charge, the union alleges that “the university failed to bargain over recently announced plans to unilaterally increase employee healthcare costs by hundreds of dollars every month, refused to provide critical staff vacancy and financial information relevant to the bargaining process, and detailed a pattern of UC representatives repeatedly coming to bargaining sessions unprepared and without authority to negotiate.” In its statement regarding the union’s decision to strike, the University of California responded, “We fundamentally disagree with AFSCME’s claims of bad faith bargaining and characterization of unacceptable bargaining proposals. From January to May, University of California and AFSCME bargaining teams met 22 times and worked collaboratively on proposals for the UC AFSCME-represented employees.
” The communication continued, “The university is dedicated to working in good faith through these impasse procedures to reach a fair agreement supporting these valued employees. During AFSCME’s last round of bargaining with UC, the union went on strike six times.” UCSC Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Lori Kletzer issued a statement about the upcoming action, noting that the strike will likely have “noticeable impacts to the services provided by campus dining, transit, and health services.
” Kletzer went on to state, “We will be focusing our efforts on instructional and operational continuity, to fulfill our mission of teaching, research and public service.” For information and updates, visit ucsc.edu/status .
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