Bargaining Updates

Our unfair labor practice strike on April 1 forced UC executives to admit to California legislators in a March 31st communique, that "the strikes in November and February cost UC tens of millions of dollars each day to staff our medical centers and campuses." This is presumably in addition to lost revenues from things like cancelled surgeries, which are likely in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Why does UC continue to provoke costly, disruptive strikes at the same time that announces a hiring freeze based on supposed financial uncertainty? UC executives are panicked about the power and determination of our campaign and are saying whatever they can to try to slow us down.

This week, UPTE filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge over the University's imposition of the hiring freeze, which would further undermine patient care, research, and education across the state. UC knows what it has to do to avoid further strikes - end its unfair labor practices and bargain in good faith with all UPTE members over our proposals to end the recruitment and retention crisis.

On April 1, twenty thousand UPTE members at every University of California healthcare center, campus, and key laboratories participated in an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike. The strike was in response to UC’s decision to engage in a pattern of illegal behavior including continued attempts to unilaterally and unlawfully increase health insurance costs for some of the most vulnerable union members outside of the bargaining process. UC has also forced newly organized groups of workers into their own separate negotiation process, which has rendered the bargaining process hopelessly impractical and ineffective—a classic “divide-and-conquer” strategy that violates the law. 

“We believe UC’s priority should be the people of California and that they have an obligation to follow the law just like any other employer in our state. When they egregiously trample on our legal rights and protections, it emboldens other wealthy and powerful bullies to do the same to the rest of us—but we’re willing to fight to hold them accountable. It isn’t clear to us why UC has such a hard time respecting the rights of workers. What is clear is that when frontline workers speak out about the staffing crisis, UC is quick to dismiss it—while executives will report the same concerns internally,” said Amy Fletcher, a Staff Research Associate at UC Davis and a member of UPTE’s bargaining team. 

UPTE will be striking all UC locations on April 1 in response to UC’s unfair labor practices. 

During our contract negotiations, UC has refused to bargain over pay scales and other issues unique to the thousands of workers in non-union titles who joined UPTE in the past few years, most recently Research and Development Engineers. Many of these workers have been attempting to bargain separately for more than three years now.

UC wants every new title to keep being stuck in a separate bargaining process forever—in short, an illegal “divide-and-conquer” tactic that ultimately UC could extend to all of us simply by moving us to non-union titles. 

UC also imposed higher healthcare premiums during bargaining for many workers—unilaterally, with no prior notice, even though UC promised that it would not increase premiums while it was bargaining with us. 

Be sure to RSVP now at upte.org/ucstrike and plan to join us on the picket lines on April 1.

Next week, UPTE and UC will begin fact-finding, the final step of the impasse process, before we can call a strike over our bargaining demands. As part of this, we are reminded of where UC’s contract proposals would leave us in three years: far behind other UC workers and our top competitors.

UC’s recruitment and retention crisis is due in large part to its failure to meet industry standards in key areas. If we continue to fall even further behind—and lose more committed colleagues each year—what will that mean for our patients, research, and students?

How far behind would UC’s proposals put us?

UC continues to claim that there is no staffing crisis—and that it is offering proposals that address our concerns. Make sure your co-workers understand the truth—and what is at stake.

Last week'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.

You should not report to work for any shifts between 12 am (midnight) on February 26 and 11:59 pm on February 28. You should complete any shifts that start on February 25 and continue into February 26—do not stop work mid-shift. Check out our FAQs about the strike here. 

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.

RSVP for our UPTE Statewide Strike Town Hall on Wednesday, February 19, 2025, from noon to 1 pm. We'll discuss the strike vote results, our next steps, and how we can stand together to protect our rights.

More than 9,000 of our UC colleagues across the state cast their ballots in the first week of voting. Now, we're focused on making sure that we finish the week strong so we can send a clear message to UC that we won't tolerate unfair labor practices or their misplaced priorities any longer.

Over the past two years, thousands of clinicians, researchers, and technical support professionals came together to identify the changes we need to continue providing the best research, patient care, and education. Instead of engaging in good faith with our 20,000 colleagues, UC has violated state law dozens of times.

Let's put an end to the bad-faith bargaining and unfair practices hurting patients, research, and students with a strong YES vote to authorize a statewide strike if necessary.

My name is Ursula Quinn. I'm an Occupational Therapist at UCLA and a leader in our union, UPTE. Over 6,000 members cast their ballots on the first day of our statewide strike vote. Will you to join us in voting YES to strike today at upte.org/vote?

For the last seven months, UC has refused to meaningfully address our priorities and concerns. We tell them about our dedication to world-class patient care, innovative research, and high-quality education for our students—all of which depend on sustainable working conditions and an end to the staffing and recruitment crisis. Instead of meaningful counterproposals, they respond with bad faith bargaining and other unfair labor practices, like illegally implemented healthcare cost increases and interfering with our union rights.

Our UCSF colleagues have already led the way to hold UC accountable with their powerful strike last November—now, it's up to the rest of us to step up. Please join more than 6,000 other UPTE members and visit upte.org/vote to cast your YES vote now.

Our strike vote is live. Please visit upte.org/vote to cast your ballot now.

I and our bargaining team encourage you to vote YES and ask you to encourage all your co-workers to do so as well. 

A strong YES vote will send UC the strongest possible message that you are prepared to strike for as many days as necessary to win a strong contract, end their unfair labor practices, and ready to stand in solidarity with our AFSCME colleagues. 

UC's representatives have made it increasingly clear: UC administrators will not engage with the urgent demands set out by clinicians, researchers, and frontline staff without the pressure of a strike.

Vote to strike at upte.org/vote and make sure all of your coworkers vote today.

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

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.  

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.

After our 24th day of bargaining, the University showed no intention to address our priorities nor to take their legal obligations more seriously. When we asked the University to explain the claim that they are offering 19-23% raises (when in fact UC has offered just 11% across the board raises) UC's Chief Negotiator said "I didn't do the update, so no, I won't try to."

On December 11, we informed the University that we believe negotiations are no longer productive and that we should begin an 'impasse' process required by the Public Employment Relations Board before we are able to call a strike directly over our bargaining priorities. We can continue to strike in response to the University's Unfair Labor Practices during this time.

Your bargaining team is recommending that UPTE hold a statewide strike vote to authorize UPTE leadership to call a strike in response to unfair labor practices committed by UC. Among the ongoing unfair labor practices UC has committed are their unilateral increase to healthcare costs, bad faith bargaining, and unconstitutional restrictions on union speech and activities. 

We knew how the world reacted to a worldwide pandemic with COVID-19. In California alone, nearly one hundred ten thousand have died from the contagious disease since first being detected in late January 2020. We have seen how our loved ones and entire communities were devastated by the pandemic. That is why we need to be on guard for the next time.

Workers at the California Animal Health & Food Safety Lab System (CAHFS) at UC Davis are raising the alarm about severe understaffing and unsafe conditions that jeopardize critical testing for diseases like Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1).

Please RSVP to join our informational picket line on December 11 at 12 pm, 2024, to support these essential workers in protecting the health and safety of our communities.

You may have seen the recent Los Angeles Times article highlighting the working conditions that workers have to endure on a daily basis just to protect all of us. The fight that CAHFS workers are going through is what we mean when talking about resetting UC's priorities to serve ALL Californians.

If UC had any doubts that UPTE members were willing to do whatever it takes to end the University's unfair labor practices and the crisis of recruitment and retention, our strike at UCSF put those to rest.

Through wind and rain, UPTE members at UCSF came out in their biggest numbers ever. Please take a look at the incredible photos and videos on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and Bluesky to get a sense of what it looked and felt like. You can also take a look at our coverage of our unfair labor practice strike in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco, and ABC News.

In an email to UCSF staff this morning, Chancellor Hawgood and Suresh Gunasekaran, the President and CEO of UCSF Health, acknowledged that "[t]he strike has had an impact on all of us, and its effects will linger in the weeks ahead."

UC now knows how prepared thousands of UPTE members across the state are to strike if they continue their unfair labor practices.

On Friday, UPTE and the University concluded our twenty-third day of bargaining. Even with all of our contracts now expired, UC has yet to provide a pay proposal for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and is explicitly refusing—unlawfully—to bargain over our inclusion in the mortgage loan program it provides to Executives and Faculty.

While UC finally acknowledged the importance of guaranteeing the use of vacation accruals, they have not offered improved accruals or the right to cash out vacation despite already providing higher accruals to executives and managers. Overall, the movement made by the University after five months and ten bargaining sessions remains insignificant.

UC's raise offer would leave us behind in inflation, setting us up to fall even further behind by 2027. Worse, their healthcare cuts would allow them to raise costs as much as they want, allowing them to take back hundreds if not thousands of dollars per month. Go here to see a comparison of our offer and UC's.

UC continues to bargain in bad faith and plans to unilaterally increase healthcare costs in 2025, all violating California law. Go here to sign a strike pledge today!

Go here to RSVP for our November 20 and 21 unfair labor practice strike today—and make sure all of your colleagues have as well!

Today, we are announcing that a ULP strike will take place at UCSF on November 20 and 21, 2024. We are limiting this strike to UCSF in order to give UC an opportunity to begin to bargain in good faith. If UC doesn't - and if they continue their pattern of unlawful behavior—all 20,000 UPTE workers across the state need to be prepared to act to hold UC accountable.

For five months, UC has refused to meaningfully engage with any of our proposals. Instead, they have withheld key information, bargained in bad faith, and threatened to impose healthcare cost increases without bargaining, in violation of California law. 

The University's refusal to bargain in good faith is not just illegal, it insults the commitment that each and every one of you has to your patients, research, and students. UC won't even tell us how many vacant positions they leave unfilled, or how many millions of dollars these vacancies save them.

Thousands of members participated in our strike vote at UCSF, voting yes to strike by 98% and dwarfing turnout from all past UPTE strike votes.

Over 75% of healthcare workers voted to strike, meaning that our power to hold UC accountable will be on full display at UCSF's Medical Centers, labs, and clinics.

A strike at UCSF may be announced at any time. UPTE will provide at least 10 days notice to the University and has already reminded them of their responsibility to plan for this.

Click here to find a strike FAQ.

We are limiting this strike to UCSF in order to give UC an opportunity to begin to bargain in good faith. If UC continues to commit illegal, unfair labor practices, all of us must be prepared for a statewide strike vote.

Have all of your colleagues pledged to strike already? Please ask to make sure they have today!

Our bargaining team has unanimously recommended a strike vote over UC's Unfair Labor Practices. You can cast your ballot online now at upte.org/vote.

What are some ways UC has bargained in bad faith, putting patient care and research at risk by prolonging the crisis of recruitment and retention?

• Sending representatives who lack the authority to address the critical issues we've raised at the bargaining table;

• Making proposals that they know we would not accept;

• Refusing to disclose the number of unfilled positions in our titles statewide—or how many millions of dollars they're saving by not filling budgeted staff.

UCSF members: cast your ballot now at upte.org/vote

Not at UCSF? Make sure you and your coworkers have signed your strike commitment cards so that if the time comes for a strike vote at your campus or workplace, you’ll be ready: upte.org/strike

Questions? Check out our ULP strike FAQ at upte.org/ucstrikefaq

We are now in our 5th month of negotiations and our contracts expire in less than 2 weeks. Yet the University has not ended its unfair practices, made significant movement on our priorities, nor even provided a complete contract proposal. 

UC has not provided any pay proposal at all for Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) and has not responded to proposals that UPTE made more than 2 months ago, such as Shift Differentials and Subcontracting.

At bargaining yesterday at UC Santa Cruz, UPTE members once again packed the room to share stories of how poor compensation, misclassification, lack of career progression and more are impacting our students and our research. We were also joined by State Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin who called on the University to address the affordability crisis, and by State Senator John Laird who pledged his support if a strike becomes necessary. 

Our rally was covered by KSBW Action News 8, local NPR affiliate KAZU 90.3, and Lookout Santa Cruz.

On Friday, October 11, UPTE filed an unfair labor practice charge in response to UC’s bad faith bargaining and illegal plan to implement unlimited healthcare cost increases while we are bargaining.

UC currently pays 76-95% of monthly healthcare premiums on Kaiser & UC Blue & Gold plans, thanks to the $25 annual limit we won in our last contract.

After significant increases in 2024, this saved up to $224/month compared to non-union employees.

By proposing to remove the cap, UC wants the ability to shift up to $2,451.37 per month in costs to us - numbers that are likely to increase dramatically in 2025 and beyond.

What UC is proposing in bargaining:

• No limit on healthcare premium increases

• $100 subsidy for Pay Band 1, $75 subsidy for Pay Band 2 (after their increases)

Some of what UC is planning to implement outside of bargaining in 2025:

• 9% increase in cost on pay bands 1 and 2 (those making less than $140,000)

• 11% increase in cost on pay bands 3 and 4 (those making more than $140,000)

• CORE PPO no longer no-cost (premium cost not announced)