Beating UC’s unnecessary layoffs

Tuesday, July 8, and Wednesday, July 9, will be our 13th bargaining session, and UC is refusing to provide a bargaining location at either UC Berkeley or UC San Francisco. We are looking into alternative locations in the Bay Area.

After more than a year of bargaining, why is UC not doing its part to reach a fair agreement that addresses the recruitment and retention crisis?

The most recent state budget has restored UC's expected fundingcompletely—and thus far, no major federal funding cuts have been made. Yet UC continues to use uncertainty as an excuse to dig in their heels on the same unfair proposals they made a year ago.

We hope that incoming UC President James B. Milliken will recognize that our demands are reasonable and that now is the time to settle a contract that will end the recruitment and retention crisis.

Under President Milliken's leadership at the City University of New York, workers started their careers with eight more days off per year (sick, vacation, and holidays combined) than UPTE members do, and have 15 more days off per year than we do after ten years of service. They also receive up to four days of bereavement leave per year, which does not count against their sick leave accruals.

However, UC has thus far refused any increase in paid time off—even though other UC employees already receive up to nine days more off per year than we do.

Over the past two weeks, UPTE members have been mobilizing to protect our patients, students, and the communities we serve. UCLA members mobilized to provide security for undocumented students, also known as DREAMers, during graduation. Meanwhile, UC Irvine members held an emergency town hall in response to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) staging at one of UC's new hospitals. Additionally, members across the state joined "No Kings" protests on Saturday.

As ICE raids continue to threaten our workplaces and communities, we want to make sure you know your rights so that you can protect your co-workers, friends, students, patients, and family.

Here is a list of immigration resources compiled by the UCLA Labor Center, including regional emergency hotlines.

Please reach out to your UPTE Organizer or Unit Representative immediately if you are aware of ICE activity that may pose a threat to your co-workers or those who depend on us.

We are proud to see our fellow UPTE members stand together and show the courage to advocate for others in this moment.

In the labor movement, we often talk about the importance of solidarity: that an injury to one worker is an injury to all workers.

We have built incredible power and solidarity within our union and with other UC workers as we have fought to reset UC's priorities. 

We will stay true to those values as the federal government terrorizes our communities and assaults union leaders like SEIU California and United Service Workers West President David Huerta, who stand with them.

What message will we send if we do not stand up and speak out when they attack our immigrant union siblings, family members, and neighbors?

This is not about Democrats and Republicans: this is about workers sending a message to every politician that we have one another's backs—that we will not allow other workers to be silenced or targeted for speaking out. 

This is about recognizing that immigrants are not the reason that working people are struggling: it is the billionaires who support politicians from both parties.

In 2013 and 2019, AFSCME, CNA, and UPTE stuck together and struck together to force UC to back down on its plans to force our newly-hired members to work five years longer for the same pension benefits as current employees. 

The last few years have seen UC pass increasing portions of healthcare costs onto non-union workers—which is why UPTE members pay up to $224 less per month.

Now, UC wants to remove the caps and impose up to $150/month for specialty pharmaceuticals.

That's why an even broader coalition of UC unions is saying "hell no!" to UC's attempts to push healthcare costs onto workers.

Click here to sign the petition and let UC know you're going to stand with our AFSCME, AFT, CNA, SEIU-CIR, Teamsters, and UAW colleagues to protect affordable healthcare at UC.

UC has yet to propose bargaining dates for our next session, after saying they were unavailable for the dates that UPTE proposed in early June.

UC may not be showing urgency to get bargaining done, but we feel the urgency every day that the recruitment and retention crisis worsens—and need to use that to keep our co-workers engaged.

As we prepare to keep building pressure through the next phase of our contract campaign, we continue to win fights at the departmental level thanks to the power we have continued to build over the past three years.

Earlier this month, 22 UC Davis Social Workers at Jail Psychological Services (JPS), serving two jails in Sacramento, won a multi-year fight for fair re-classification with the support of UC Davis Co-Chair and Unit Representative Sonya Mogilner.

Lack of career progression contributes to an 80% annual turnover rate at JPS. This is a major victory over UC's pattern of under-classifying healthcare workers who treat vulnerable patient populations.

This year, University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE) will have a joint election process to elect two separate delegations, with one to attend the UPTE Convention and the other to attend the Communications Workers of America (CWA) National Convention.

All statewide members in good standing will be eligible to vote in the CWA Delegate Election. For chapters that will not have a contested UPTE delegate election, UPTE members will be asked only to vote for the CWA Convention delegates. This election will be held electronically and managed by ElectionBuddy.

The voting period will open on Monday, June 2, and close on Monday, June 9, 2025.

If you cannot vote online or access email, you may email your request for a mail-in ballot to elections@upte.org by Friday, May 30, 2025.

ElectionBuddy will share voting instructions and ballots via email on the morning of June 2.

It was incredible to see thousands of UPTE members striking in response to UC's illegal hiring freeze on May Day. We marched alongside hundreds of others from unions and community groups protesting attacks on workers' rights. As our numbers and support grow strike after strike, UC knows that we are not backing down in our fight for our patients, research, and students.

Click below for some highlights of our great press coverage:

• Labor Notes: May Day Rallies Confront Billionaire Assaults

• Sacramento Bee: UC workers strike over hiring freeze but plan to return to bargaining table

• KQED: Bay Area Workers Defend Labor, Protest Trump on May Day

• KPBS: UC San Diego Health workers strike on International Workers' Day

In July, we will miss our first across-the-board increase. How many more of our colleagues will leave if we allow UC to continue to drag out these negotiations?

Our patients, our research, and our students are counting on us to keep up the fight.

UPTE will be striking at all UC locations on Thursday, May 1, 2025 in response to UC's unfair labor practices. Learn more at upte.org/ucstrike.

On March 19, UC publicly announced a hiring freeze and has since implemented it at campuses without providing UPTE notice, let alone an opportunity to bargain over the freeze or its effects on our members—as it is legally required to do now that our contracts have expired.

Some campuses even apply the freeze to decisions about existing employees, such as reclassifications, promotions, equity increases, and conversion of term-limited employees to career employees.

After UPTE submitted a cease and desist and demand to bargain, the University explicitly refused to undo the hiring freeze so we could bargain. UC has also committed additional unfair practices like denying pension credit to workers at the hospitals it has acquired without bargaining, leaving these new workers behind, even as UC expands its market share. 

This is all despite UC's holding more than $26 billion in liquid capital and a judge issuing a permanent stay on threatened across-the-board cuts to indirect cost reimbursements for research grants.

UPTE has agreed to return to the bargaining table on Thursday, May 8, and Friday, May 9, 2025, after receiving an improved proposal from UC on reclassification via email.

In its new proposal, UC has agreed to UPTE's proposal for an initial response to reclassification requests within ninety days, a significant improvement from having no timeline in our current contract and UC's initial proposal of 210 days. However, the University has not agreed to address the lack of clear and objective criteria or an enforceable appeals process.

Now, we need to keep up the pressure to let UC know we won't back down: UC needs to offer solutions to the staffing crisis, bargain in good faith, and end its unfair labor practices. RSVP for our May 1 ULP strike against UC’s unlawful hiring freeze today at upte.org/ucstrike.