Another powerful statewide ULP strike shows that we won’t stand for UC’s unfair labor practices

February’s strike was not just the largest in UPTE's history - it was the first time UPTE members had shut UC down statewide on our own.

The sea of blue formed by thousands and thousands of UPTE members marching across the state is the strongest and clearest rebuttal of UC's claim that "there is no crisis of recruitment and retention" and their attempt to silence frontline workers.

We hope UC has heard us and is prepared to work with us rather than continuing on the current course of violating the law by committing unfair labor practices. If they do not, we know what we have to do.

We are scheduling hundreds of meetings across the state in the next 2-3 weeks to debrief the strike and discuss how we make our next strike even stronger, if that becomes necessary.

Our statewide strike vote has closed, and today, UPTE is announcing a statewide strike from February 26 to 28, 2025, in response to UC's ongoing unfair labor practices.You can check out our announcement in the Los Angeles Times.

Four times as many UPTE members participated this time compared to our last statewide strike vote in 2018, voting to authorize the strike by 98%. Instead of working together to address the recruitment and retention crisis, UC is attempting to silence workers for speaking out for our patients, research, and students. 

UC has enacted new rules to limit our ability to advocate for ourselves and interfered with our rights by unilaterally forcing individuals to come to work during our November unfair practice strike at UCSF. With public healthcare, research, and education under attack from the federal government, it is more important than ever that we defend our rights to advocate for our professions.

Whether UC attempts to stop us from speaking up for patient care, students, or the public—or continues bargaining in bad faith—it is up to us to take action to hold them accountable. Don't just stay home from work; our patients, research, and students are counting on us.

Over the last year, the University of California has imposed draconian rules that attempt to stop workers from advocating on behalf of their patients, research, and students.

This January, UPTE filed a 490-page charge with the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), forcefully challenging dozens of UC’s new rules. These repressive policies set unconscionable limits on both employee and union speech, running counter to well-established protections under state and federal law. The Public Employee Relations Board is responsible for safeguarding the collective bargaining statutes that govern employees of California’s universities and other public institutions across the state.

Among UC’s many repressive measures, UC San Francisco and UC Davis now ban a lone leafletter from venturing closer than fifty feet from any door, while UC Merced forces every picketer or leafletter to remain thirty feet away from walkways, roadways, or doors. Our charge highlights that in 2014, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down a thirty-five-foot buffer zone around doorways, underscoring the outrageous nature of UC’s even more extreme demands.

On January 22, more than fifty UPTE members from across the state gathered in Sacramento to inform state legislators about the dire state of negotiations with the University of California.

We met with eighty-three offices, including California State Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, the Majority Leader of the California State Assembly, as well as California State Superintendent of Public Instruction and UC Regent Tony Thurmond, who expressed their strong support for our efforts.

Whether you attended our first official Lobby Day last week in person or not, I wanted to share our recap video of the event. Watch and share it on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Twitter.

A number of legislators have already signed on to a letter demanding that UC President Michael V. Drake work with us to address the recruitment and retention crisis. We expect many more to do so in the coming weeks.

Given new threats to healthcare and research in the public interest from the federal government, we hope that UC will take this opportunity to begin working with us to advocate for our patients, research, and students—rather than continuing to waste precious time and resources on their bad faith bargaining and unfair labor practices.

Just in case you didn't hear the exciting news: Between Thursday, January 23, and today, Monday, January 27, 2025, nearly three-fourths of University Professional and Technical Employees CWA Local 9119 (UPTE CWA 9119) members cast their ballots to ratify our new contract with Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC.

We're proud that UPTE members at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory cast a ballot, voting overwhelmingly yes—over ninety-eight percent—to ratify a strong contract at the federally funded research and development center in Livermore, California. As so many members voted so quickly and so resolutely, your bargaining team has decided to close the contract ratification vote, ratify the contract, and inform lab management of our decision.

Remember, it's our collective strength that helped us achieve our new contract. Together, we can continue building a stronger, more inclusive union representing the goals and priorities of every UPTE member at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. If you're invested enough to want a career at Lawrence Livermore Lab, you have a stake in making it the best possible workplace. Livermore Lab belongs to us as much as—no, even more than—it does to management.

Workers across the state report that UC has illegally implemented increased co-pays—which was one of the bases for our November unfair labor practice strike at UCSF—and has now made new changes to premiums.

Increased monthly co-insurance of $150 for specialty drugs hit the lowest paid workers hardest and are especially cruel to those of us who need these drugs for ourselves or family members battling life-threatening illnesses or just to live happy and productive lives. UC made these changes even though unilateral changes are unlawful during bargaining, despite our active unfair labor practice charges over this illegal action.

"The increase in specialty drug co-insurance, from $40 to $150, has a significant financial impact on my family and countless other patients who are facing similar increases. Such increases can mean difficult decisions between paying for essential treatments or other basic needs, further exacerbating the financial burdens that already come with managing chronic health conditions."

Judd Laraway
UPTE Bargaining Team Member
UC San Diego Senior Physician Assistant

Excellent news! Over the holiday break, the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) ruled that Research & Development Engineers 1-3 should be represented by UPTE's Technical (TX) bargaining unit, which already represents Lab Mechanicians, Development Technicians, and Systems Administrators, among many other titles throughout the University of California.

Your wages, working conditions, and benefits will be protected by the UPTE TX contract, which we are in the process of improving in negotiations that started in June. UC has offered 15% in raises and steps over 3 years - and we are fighting for more.

Click here to see a comparison of what UPTE members are asking for and what UC is offering, and click here for highlights of other benefits of our contracts.

Click here to sign a membership form and let UC know that you’ll be standing with 20,000 other UPTE technical, healthcare, and research professionals as we fight for a contract that protects our families, research, patients, and students.

Step increases were not processed for the first full pay period in January because, after 7 months of bargaining, UC continues to bargain in bad faith and has refused to engage over our bargaining priorities meaningfully.

A statewide strike authorization vote will begin on February 3rd. This vote will ask you to authorize UPTE leadership to call strikes in response to UC's ongoing bad-faith bargaining or other unfair labor practices UC commits, failure to agree to your bargaining priorities, and in solidarity with our AFSCME 3299 siblings who are also fighting for similar demands to protect our patients, research, and students.  

Instead of bargaining in good faith to address your concerns, UC has refused to provide information and has insisted on maintaining illegal restrictions on our ability to advocate for ourselves, our patients, our research, and our students. If UC continues to commit unfair labor practices, we must be ready to hold it accountable statewide. 

The next step in negotiations - mediation - has been scheduled for January 28-29. While we hope that UC will engage in mediation in good faith, UC has shown no inclination to do so at the bargaining table. Neither mediation nor the impasse process ultimately requires UC to make movement in their bargaining proposals - that is ultimately up to our willingness to take collective action. Click here for a brief explanation of the "impasse" process.

2024 was another incredible year for UPTE, capped by thousands of members striking at UCSF on November 20-21. UC can have no doubt about how ready UPTE members are to continue fighting for their patients, research, and students.

Earlier this month, the LA Times ran a powerful story about UPTE researchers at UC Davis, who are fighting back against low wages, high turnover, misclassification and understaffing, all while carrying the burden of trying to stop bird flu from turning into the next pandemic.  We won strong contracts at Mt. San Jacinto College and College of the Sequoias, with significant progress made at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. Despite LLNL management taking bargaining more seriously than UC, members are still preparing to strike, if necessary.

Our membership is at a historic high, with more than 2,200 members joining UPTE since last December. Those members are more engaged than ever, which means that we are ready to take on the challenges of 2025 and beyond, whatever those may be.