On June 23rd, UC San Diego Health announced the layoff of 230 employees, including a handful of UPTE-represented workers. Immediately following the announcement, UPTE sprang into action.

With little notice, over 200 members attended an emergency meeting in La Jolla and received widespread media coverage that made it clear to UCSD leadership that UPTE members would not sit by quietly. UPTE workplace and unit representatives talked to their coworkers and discussed a strike if UCSD refused to work with us.

Thanks to our powerful presence in the past three strikes, UCSD recognized our strength and has committed to resolving a majority of the UPTE layoffs. We are continuing to fight every layoff and will not stop until every option has been exhausted.

As a result of this progress, UPTE will not be striking on July 22nd. We stand in solidarity with AFSCME in their fight against layoffs and ask all members to show support by wearing solidarity stickers and joining their picket lines during breaks. AFSCME was hit with 103 layoffs, roles essential to hospital operations and patient care, and we will stand beside them in their fight.

As you may have heard, UC San Diego and UC San Francisco announced significant, hospital-wide layoffs last week, with top hospital leadership demanding cuts of 1.5% and 1% of payroll across the board.

Though these cuts were supposedly due to financial necessity, we know that these hospitals are sitting on billions of dollars in reserves—and that these layoffs are likely related to a desire to best position the hospitals to finance even further expansion. UCSF and UC San Diego each have ongoing and planned capital expansion projects totaling more than $10 billion.

Laying off frontline staff to finance expansion projects, amidst a well-documented crisis of short staffing, is unacceptable and puts patient care, research, and education at risk.

That's why UPTE's Unit Representatives at both campuses sprang into action, calling emergency meetings and organizing mass meetings to protest the layoffs, and joining pickets in solidarity with AFSCME and CNA workers who are also facing layoffs. UPTE members spoke to the press about the impacts of layoffs on patient care and operations, garnering important coverage across the state, including in the San Francisco Chronicle and 10News – ABC San Diego KGTV.

Thanks to our quick response, some layoffs have already been rescinded, and we are continuing to build pressure to rescind the rest.

On, Tuesday, July 8, UPTE members and allies rallied outside the School of Social Ecology to warn UC Irvine administrators that cutting the very people who keep classrooms, laboratories, and clinics running hurts everyone—students, faculty, and the broader public alike.

UC’s public mission is to educate the next generation, drive groundbreaking research, and serve our communities. When UC shows the last remaining help-desk technician in the School of Social Ecology the door, that mission grinds to a halt:

• Students lose a lifeline. Without prompt tech support, laptops remain unconfigured and vital software goes uninstalled, threatening first-week instruction and derailing senior capstone projects.

• Faculty research stalls. Broken lab computers delay grant-funded experiments and slow the discoveries that improve our communities’ health, environment, and economy.

• Community partnerships suffer. Agencies that depend on timely data analysis and research collaborations can’t proceed when equipment sits idle.

• Security risks multiply. Devices piled up in an unsecured office violate UC information-security standards, putting sensitive data at risk.

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.