3 things to know about “UC’s Last, Best, and Final Offer”

Our strike vote is now open! Go here to vote now and encourage all of your colleagues to do the same.

A YES vote will send a clear message to UC: we are prepared to strike for as long as it takes to win the changes we need to continue delivering world-class healthcare, doing world-class research, and providing world-class education.

Instead of working with frontline workers to protect public healthcare, research, and education, UC executives are negotiating with the federal government behind closed doors. That's why UPTE joined with other UC unions and academic organizations to file a lawsuit against the government's extortion attempt.

The most important thing each of us can do is vote to strike and prepare to be on the picket lines for a longer strike, if that is what it takes to convince UC to invest in frontline workers.

UC has threatened to impose its "Last, Best and Final Offer" (LBFO)—review how far behind that offer would leave us and how much more we won in 2019 after UC's LBFO.

The University of California is sitting on $26 billion in liquid and short-term capital and $41 billion in endowments.¹ While leadership enjoys generous pay increases and boasts of strong financial growth, they leave the patients, students, and workers of UC to make do with less and less.

The cost of UC’s misplaced priorities is high. The question is, will we let them make us keep footing the bill?

“We love our patients, and that’s why we went into this field. We only want to provide the best possible care for these animals, but when we’re short-staffed, we can miss things. We just want to be able to live up to our reputation as the #1 veterinary hospital and provide the care people expect from us,” said LaShell Alpaugh, a Registered Vet. Tech. at UC Davis.

🔗 You can also download this information for social media and explore our other research on UC’s role in the staffing crisis.

Don't be confused by the term "Last, Best, and Final" offer. In 2019, we beat UC's attempt to cut the pension, won significantly more in raises and daily overtime pay by continuing to fight - and strike - following UC's Last, Best, and Final Offer (LBFO) and imposition.

UC is likely to impose a raise, along with their proposed healthcare cuts, without UPTE's agreement, in an attempt to confuse us and keep us from having a powerful strike.

We can't let that stop us from continuing our fight for our patients, our research, and or our students. Make sure all of your co-workers are committed to voting to strike on the first day of our vote - September 22nd - and are ready for a longer strike, if necessary!

Make sure all of your co-workers are committed to voting to strike on the first day of our vote - September 22nd - and are ready for a longer strike, if necessary!

Today, UC sent UPTE its "Last, Best, and Final Offer" (LBFO). This does not mean that UC will not improve its offer when we agree to a contract. 

Far from an actual "last, best and final" offer, this is a technical term for something UC must provide before it is allowed to implement any of its proposals without UPTE's agreement - something we should expect them to do in the following weeks.

UC made a "last, best, final offer" and then implemented its terms on our AFSCME siblings recently and to our Research and Technical members in 2019. We know that we can win more by continuing to fight, just like we did in 2019.

It is no coincidence that UC sent this offer just after we announced a strike vote beginning on September 22. UC wants to trick our members into thinking that either we agreed to a contract or can't win a better contract – and that it isn't worth it to keep fighting and striking. 

Fortunately, we know this isn't true from our contract victory in 2019. UC implemented on RX and TX members in April of 2019 and in August of 2019 we won a contract with significant improvements from UC's Last, Best, and Final offer. Mark your calendar today for September 22nd and vote YES to strike!

The energy, enthusiasm, and solidarity on display at the thirty-third annual UPTE Convention in San Diego were incredible. It was much needed after another year of hard work, where we struck UC four times and executed UPTE's first-ever UC-wide majority strike vote.

UPTE members shared why they are committed to continuing this fight and strategized on how to make our upcoming strike vote, beginning on September 22, and longer strikes successful.

We also discussed how we can work with other unions and workers to stop the billionaire-led attacks on public healthcare, education, and research. UPTE members were excited to learn from guests from the Chicago Teachers Union and UNITE HERE who have run successful strikes and community campaigns. They elected their own leaders to public office. We heard from multiple guests about the importance of supporting California Proposition 50—the Election Rigging Response Act—to stop the federal attacks on public healthcare, research, and education.

More than 15 months since we began negotiations, patients, research, and students continue to suffer as UC bargains in bad faith while continuing to pour billions into over-priced, luxury architecture.

UC systemwide strike vote
September 22 – October 2

Vote YES to strike
Details to be announced

UC is sticking to its offer of three years of raises over four years, which would leave us permanently behind inflation and UC nurses, along with unlimited increases in healthcare costs, promising only to exacerbate the crisis of recruitment and retention.

Maintaining the status quo is not an option: we are faced with a choice between escalating our fight for a fair contract or moving backward for the next four years, facing hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in healthcare cost increases each month.

Your YES vote on September 22 will send a strong message to UC's new President James B. Milliken: UC's behavior is unacceptable, and you are willing to strike for as long as it takes to win.

UC tried to pull a fast one by announcing a parking fee hike earlier this year at several UC locations—UCI, UCLA, UCR, UCB, and UCD. UPTE members forced them to hit the brakes. 

When UPTE members at those campuses received notice that their parking rates were going to be increasing in a few months, we wasted no time in reminding UC that what they were planning was unlawful. We’d been (and are still are) in the status quo period of contract negotiations and they had no grounds to unilaterally impose anything without bargaining with us first. 

So, in preparation for good-faith bargaining over this parking fee increase, we requested financial information from each UC campus as a matter of course. The response? Nearly all campuses pulled a quick u-turn, claiming this was all a mistake—no increases for UPTE or AFSCME members after all. 

Cut workers and the work suffers. Critical research on cancer, Alzheimer's, and other crucial studies is now at risk of derailment in the wake of UCSD’s recent decision to lay off 16 career animal technicians—on top of dozens of temporary staff cuts earlier this year. 

We know these technicians are the frontline staff responsible for the daily care of research animals, including “million-dollar mice” used in multi-year studies. The reality is that these cuts threaten the validity of experiments and could undermine years of work—putting us at risk of losing the next breakthrough for diseases that impact millions of lives. 

As we continue our fight for a fair contract, UPTE members are also fighting and winning on issues that matter to us in workplaces all across the state.

With UC's new President James Milliken a few days into his tenure, we hope he will choose a new path for our negotiations—but we continue to get strike-ready if UC continues its bad faith bargaining.

Every UPTE member who has stepped up to fight back against UC's poorly thought-out policies, short-sighted layoffs, and other overreaches is showing UC that we won't back down in our fight for our patients, research, and students. 

Together, we are holding UC accountable to its mission of serving all Californians. Check out these recent fights and victories:

• UPTE Members Beat Back Layoffs at UCSF and UCSD

• "I'm in IT and UPTE Just Reversed My Layoff"

• Animal Techs at Davis Vet Med Hospital Picket for Safe Staffing

• CLS Members at UCI Win Fight Against Dangerous Mandatory OT

• UCSF CRCs Take on a Bad Boss—and Win

• Research & Development Engineers at UCSD Fight Back Against Layoffs