Stepping up advocacy for research, education, & healthcare ahead of Feb 3 strike vote

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.

It is more important than ever that we do not back down in our fight for the same job security provisions that they have agreed to with other unions, like AFSCME and the California Nurses Association. If we do not advocate for UC to prioritize frontline workers over spending more on top executives, who will?

Our strike vote starts on Monday, February 3: make sure you and all of your colleagues are ready to vote! We will not back down in the face of attacks on our work - we will continue fighting for what we, our families, our patients, our research, and our students deserve.

In solidarity,

Amy Fletcher
UPTE Treasurer
UPTE UC Davis Chapter Co-Chair
UC Davis Staff Research Associate 4