On April 26, hundreds of UC workers and students came together for a powerful town hall hosted by UPTE to discuss the growing mental health crisis on our campuses (you can watch a recording here). We heard from students, UC mental health clinicians, and others who shared powerful stories about the need to expand mental health services, invest in clinicians, and expand transparency around mental health outcomes.

"I'm concerned with the lack of support and investment we receive from UC, which leads to burnout, turnover, and risks to our students' safety. The position in my department that typically sees the most students for therapy has had so much turnover it's hard to keep track of," said Angie Bryan, a behavioral health clinician at UC Santa Barbara.

Case managers are Registered Nurses who manage the discharge of patients and their ongoing treatment plans after leaving the hospital. Yet across the state, UC case managers are increasingly dealing with short staffing, high patient loads, burnout, and turnover as they are forced to do more with less.

Last year, UCSD management took away Case Managers' work spaces, leaving many without a desk and some forced to work in common areas that are disruptive. This leads to delays in patient discharges, a heightened risk of HIPAA violations, and potentially serious mistakes in ongoing treatment plans.

“More than a year before we begin our next contract negotiations, UPTE is more prepared than it has ever been thanks to the hard work of hundreds of Unit and Workplace Representatives.

Thousands of you have already participated in hundreds of contract priority meetings, big and small, over the past 2 months. These are the first step toward a strong, collective understanding of what we want to improve and what it will take to win for all 18,000 of us…”

"Patient care relies on quick and accurate clinical lab results which come from CLS who are scheduled on all shifts, 7 days a week, including all holidays. Our CLS leaders helped to conduct a weekend differential survey that had over 150 participants. This survey, along with data from similar markets helped to push UC to up their original offer of $2.50/hr," said Doug Chin, a Clinical Lac Scientist at UCSF.

"Our wide network of over a dozen CLS leaders across 6 major clinical lab sites played a major part in this victory.”

Student mental health and well-being is an urgent issue. The University of California Office of the President states that, “the status quo is a barrier to mental wellness in California.” So, why is UC is allowing a growing mental health crisis to proliferate on campuses?

Despite repeated calls from Clinicians, UC refuses to take adequate steps to recruit and retain the Behavioral Health Psychiatric Professionals (BHPPs) and Behavioral Health Counselors (BHCs) who support UC students and patients in their most vulnerable moments.

In March, UC Systems Administrators classifications secured significant raises and back pay of up to 21.5% from a settlement negotiated by UPTE at the end of 2022. This win was made possible by the strength we have when we stand together as union members.

“This victory will allow us to continue ensuring that UC’s IT systems are functioning and meeting the needs of our students, faculty, clinicians, patients, and beyond. It’s important to recognize our victories but we also realize that our unions’ work is not done,” said Tom Godfrey, a Systems Administrator with UCI Irvine Health.

We are so proud of what we have all been able to accomplish as a Union in 2022, in preparation for the work that we have ahead of us in 2023 and beyond.

UPTE stands fully in solidarity with 48,000 UAW-represented academic workers who continue a historic strike for fair wages and working conditions for a 4th week.

UC has announced its plan for implementing the 2022 Emergency Paid Sick Leave law recently passed in Sacramento as a result of a broad effort by California Unions and community groups.

We have counted the mail-in ballots received for the 2022 Interim Election. We certify that the ballot tally was fairly and accurately conducted, the secrecy of the ballots was maintained, and that the election results are as indicated as below.

We are happy to report that Systems Administrators 1-3 will finally be receiving the raises from the TX contract, which have been withheld by UC since June of 2019.