Support Our

STRIKE

University of California systemwide
April 1, 2025

Since June of 2024, UPTE-represented healthcare professionals, research support, and technical employees at the University of California have been fighting for a contract that will address the crisis of recruitment and retention crippling our work. We’ve brought proposals to the table for safe staffing, career progression, work/life balance, fair pay, and job security but have been met with bad-faith bargaining and unfair labor practices from UC. Enough is enough—Californians deserve better.

Learn more below and find a plan to join your colleagues on the picket line for however long it takes to win the contract our patients, students, research, and workforce deserve.

UPTE-represented workers across the University of California system are striking over UC’s unfair labor practices, including unilateral implementation of healthcare cost increases with higher premiums, as well as UC’s insistence on threatening our job security by moving our work into new non-union job titles, and then, after the workers in the new titles organize into the union, refusing to let them negotiate wages as part of statewide negotiations—relegating each of the various job titles to inefficient and ineffective piecemeal bargaining in an illegal “divide & conquer” strategy.

Will you stand with us and hold UC accountable to its mission and obligations to follow the law?

Find a picket line near you!

    • April 1 from 7 am to 2 pm: On the Corner of Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue, 2501 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94720

    • April 1 from 7 am to 2 pm: UC Davis Medical Center, 4301 X St, Sacramento, CA 95817

    • April 1 from 7 am to 2 pm: On the corner of The City Drive & Medical Center Drive, UCI Medical Center, near Pavilion 2, 101 The City Dr S, Orange, CA 92868

    • April 1 from 7 am to 2 pm: Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, 757 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095

  • Please note: On April 1 from 7 am to 1 pm, UPTE members at UC Merced will picket at the intersection of Bellevue Road & North Lake Road, Merced, CA 95343, near the Bellevue Lot UC Merced, at 5201 Lake Rd, Merced, CA 95343.

    • April 1 from 7 am to 2 pm: UC Riverside Arts Building, 900 University Ave #232, Riverside, CA 92521

    • April 1 from 7 am to 2 pm: Koman Family Outpatient Pavilion at Jacobs Medical Center at UC San Diego Health, 9400 Campus Point Dr, La Jolla, CA 92037

    • April 1 from 7 am to 2 pm: UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights, 505 Parnassus Ave, San Francisco, CA 94143

    • April 1 from 7 am to 2 pm: Storke Tower, near 1055 Storke Communications Building, Santa Barbara, CA 93117

    • April 1 from 7 am to 2 pm: Intersection of High Street & Bay Drive, UC Santa Cruz Main Entrance, 1156 High St, Santa Cruz, CA 95064

    • April 1 from 7 am to 9:30 am: On the corner of Hearst Avenue & Gayley Road, Foothill Student Housing, Foothill Student Housing 4, 2700 Hearst Ave, Berkeley, CA 94720 (Moving to Bancroft Way & Telegraph Avenue at 9:30 am to continue the shift at UC Berkeley)

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UPTE members share their stories

UPTE-represented workers across the University of California system are striking over UC’s unfair labor practices, including the unilateral implementation of healthcare cost increases with higher co-pays, including $150 per specialty medication. UC’s bargaining team does not have sufficient bargaining authority, saying that they have to confer with “the University” prior to answering. While these unfair labor practices are at the core of our strike, it’s also important to recognize the priorities and personal stories we’ve brought to the bargaining table. Unfortunately, UC’s unfair labor practices prevent us from addressing those issues, including the systemwide recruitment and retention crisis, a lack of career progression, job security, fair pay, work/life balance, and more.

“As a behavioral health counselor, I provide care coordination and therapeutic services for the Student Health Center and Counseling and Psychological Services—particularly for out-of-state and Latinx students. I have a deep commitment to supporting former foster youth, undocumented students, first-generation students, transfer students, and our veteran population.

UC's three-year pattern of refusing to bargain in good faith over behavioral health issues has exacerbated a crisis in student mental health. The consequence of UC's refusal? Long wait times and inadequate services at Counseling and Psychological Services. My work involves addressing substance use, harm reduction and recovery, trauma, interpersonal conflicts, grief/loss, and fostering community-building, often serving as a critical lifeline for students who've already faced countless barriers in their lives.”

Amelia Cutten
UC Santa Cruz Behavioral Health Counselor 3
UPTE Bargaining Team member
UPTE Unit Representative

“As healthcare professionals, research support, and technical employees, we're used to working on the front lines. We're often the only care some Californians have. Beyond routine eye exams, in my profession, optometry, we handle triage, pre- and post-op work, and complex referrals. We serve vulnerable patients—including Medicare and Medi-Cal recipients, pediatric and geriatric populations, and those with advanced vision issues.

UC's unfair labor practices—bad-faith bargaining, unilateral health cost hikes, and refusal to negotiate on unique concerns for newly UPTE-represented employees—push away qualified staff and fuel burnout. Continuity of care is threatened, with 54 percent of UC healthcare professionals having been here for less than five years. Across all UC campuses, we have lost nearly ten optometrists within the past two years.

Simply put, it's our patients who are impacted the most.”

Heidi Miller, OD
UC Davis Optometrist 4
UPTE Workplace Representative

“As an inpatient pharmacist, I review medication orders, collaborate with providers, and help ensure patients receive safe, effective treatment. Yet despite our crucial work, UC actively kept employees with the pharmacist 5 title out of our union for years, forcing us into a drawn-out accretion process and blocking us from having a voice at the bargaining table. After we finally joined UPTE, the university continued to pursue unfair labor practices. UC has unilaterally imposed higher co-pays—including $150 per specialty prescription—and premiums even though they cannot legally make these changes during negotiations.

I switched to my spouse’s health plan to escape the rising co-pays. It’s a lucky option that many of my colleagues don’t have. As medical professionals, we shouldn’t have to worry about whether our own healthcare is affordable.

It was empowering to see so many colleagues—people used to working tirelessly for others—take a stand against UC’s unfair labor practices on the picket line in February. I was asked recently to sum up my experience on the picket line in late February, and one word came to mind: ‘Pride.’”

Wan-Ting Huang
UC San Diego Pharmacist 5
UPTE Unit Representative