Bargaining Updates

Over the last year, the University of California has imposed draconian rules that attempt to stop workers from advocating on behalf of their patients, research, and students.

This January, UPTE filed a 490-page charge with the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), forcefully challenging dozens of UC’s new rules. These repressive policies set unconscionable limits on both employee and union speech, running counter to well-established protections under state and federal law. The Public Employee Relations Board is responsible for safeguarding the collective bargaining statutes that govern employees of California’s universities and other public institutions across the state.

Among UC’s many repressive measures, UC San Francisco and UC Davis now ban a lone leafletter from venturing closer than fifty feet from any door, while UC Merced forces every picketer or leafletter to remain thirty feet away from walkways, roadways, or doors. Our charge highlights that in 2014, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down a thirty-five-foot buffer zone around doorways, underscoring the outrageous nature of UC’s even more extreme demands.

More than 9,000 of our UC colleagues across the state cast their ballots in the first week of voting. Now, we're focused on making sure that we finish the week strong so we can send a clear message to UC that we won't tolerate unfair labor practices or their misplaced priorities any longer.

Over the past two years, thousands of clinicians, researchers, and technical support professionals came together to identify the changes we need to continue providing the best research, patient care, and education. Instead of engaging in good faith with our 20,000 colleagues, UC has violated state law dozens of times.

Let's put an end to the bad-faith bargaining and unfair practices hurting patients, research, and students with a strong YES vote to authorize a statewide strike if necessary.

My name is Ursula Quinn. I'm an Occupational Therapist at UCLA and a leader in our union, UPTE. Over 6,000 members cast their ballots on the first day of our statewide strike vote. Will you to join us in voting YES to strike today at upte.org/vote?

For the last seven months, UC has refused to meaningfully address our priorities and concerns. We tell them about our dedication to world-class patient care, innovative research, and high-quality education for our students—all of which depend on sustainable working conditions and an end to the staffing and recruitment crisis. Instead of meaningful counterproposals, they respond with bad faith bargaining and other unfair labor practices, like illegally implemented healthcare cost increases and interfering with our union rights.

Our UCSF colleagues have already led the way to hold UC accountable with their powerful strike last November—now, it's up to the rest of us to step up. Please join more than 6,000 other UPTE members and visit upte.org/vote to cast your YES vote now.

Our strike vote is live. Please visit upte.org/vote to cast your ballot now.

I and our bargaining team encourage you to vote YES and ask you to encourage all your co-workers to do so as well. 

A strong YES vote will send UC the strongest possible message that you are prepared to strike for as many days as necessary to win a strong contract, end their unfair labor practices, and ready to stand in solidarity with our AFSCME colleagues. 

UC's representatives have made it increasingly clear: UC administrators will not engage with the urgent demands set out by clinicians, researchers, and frontline staff without the pressure of a strike.

Vote to strike at upte.org/vote and make sure all of your coworkers vote today.

Workers across the state report that UC has illegally implemented increased co-pays—which was one of the bases for our November unfair labor practice strike at UCSF—and has now made new changes to premiums.

Increased monthly co-insurance of $150 for specialty drugs hit the lowest paid workers hardest and are especially cruel to those of us who need these drugs for ourselves or family members battling life-threatening illnesses or just to live happy and productive lives. UC made these changes even though unilateral changes are unlawful during bargaining, despite our active unfair labor practice charges over this illegal action.

"The increase in specialty drug co-insurance, from $40 to $150, has a significant financial impact on my family and countless other patients who are facing similar increases. Such increases can mean difficult decisions between paying for essential treatments or other basic needs, further exacerbating the financial burdens that already come with managing chronic health conditions."

Judd Laraway
UPTE Bargaining Team Member
UC San Diego Senior Physician Assistant

Step increases were not processed for the first full pay period in January because, after 7 months of bargaining, UC continues to bargain in bad faith and has refused to engage over our bargaining priorities meaningfully.

A statewide strike authorization vote will begin on February 3rd. This vote will ask you to authorize UPTE leadership to call strikes in response to UC's ongoing bad-faith bargaining or other unfair labor practices UC commits, failure to agree to your bargaining priorities, and in solidarity with our AFSCME 3299 siblings who are also fighting for similar demands to protect our patients, research, and students.  

The next step in negotiations - mediation - has been scheduled for January 28-29. While we hope that UC will engage in mediation in good faith, UC has shown no inclination to do so at the bargaining table. Neither mediation nor the impasse process ultimately requires UC to make movement in their bargaining proposals - that is ultimately up to our willingness to take collective action. Click here for a brief explanation of the "impasse" process.

After our 24th day of bargaining, the University showed no intention to address our priorities nor to take their legal obligations more seriously. When we asked the University to explain the claim that they are offering 19-23% raises (when in fact UC has offered just 11% across the board raises) UC's Chief Negotiator said "I didn't do the update, so no, I won't try to."

On December 11, we informed the University that we believe negotiations are no longer productive and that we should begin an 'impasse' process required by the Public Employment Relations Board before we are able to call a strike directly over our bargaining priorities. We can continue to strike in response to the University's Unfair Labor Practices during this time.

Your bargaining team is recommending that UPTE hold a statewide strike vote to authorize UPTE leadership to call a strike in response to unfair labor practices committed by UC. Among the ongoing unfair labor practices UC has committed are their unilateral increase to healthcare costs, bad faith bargaining, and unconstitutional restrictions on union speech and activities. 

We knew how the world reacted to a worldwide pandemic with COVID-19. In California alone, nearly one hundred ten thousand have died from the contagious disease since first being detected in late January 2020. We have seen how our loved ones and entire communities were devastated by the pandemic. That is why we need to be on guard for the next time.

Workers at the California Animal Health & Food Safety Lab System (CAHFS) at UC Davis are raising the alarm about severe understaffing and unsafe conditions that jeopardize critical testing for diseases like Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1).

Please RSVP to join our informational picket line on December 11 at 12 pm, 2024, to support these essential workers in protecting the health and safety of our communities.

You may have seen the recent Los Angeles Times article highlighting the working conditions that workers have to endure on a daily basis just to protect all of us. The fight that CAHFS workers are going through is what we mean when talking about resetting UC's priorities to serve ALL Californians.

If UC had any doubts that UPTE members were willing to do whatever it takes to end the University's unfair labor practices and the crisis of recruitment and retention, our strike at UCSF put those to rest.

Through wind and rain, UPTE members at UCSF came out in their biggest numbers ever. Please take a look at the incredible photos and videos on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, and Bluesky to get a sense of what it looked and felt like. You can also take a look at our coverage of our unfair labor practice strike in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco, and ABC News.

In an email to UCSF staff this morning, Chancellor Hawgood and Suresh Gunasekaran, the President and CEO of UCSF Health, acknowledged that "[t]he strike has had an impact on all of us, and its effects will linger in the weeks ahead."

UC now knows how prepared thousands of UPTE members across the state are to strike if they continue their unfair labor practices.

On Friday, UPTE and the University concluded our twenty-third day of bargaining. Even with all of our contracts now expired, UC has yet to provide a pay proposal for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and is explicitly refusing—unlawfully—to bargain over our inclusion in the mortgage loan program it provides to Executives and Faculty.

While UC finally acknowledged the importance of guaranteeing the use of vacation accruals, they have not offered improved accruals or the right to cash out vacation despite already providing higher accruals to executives and managers. Overall, the movement made by the University after five months and ten bargaining sessions remains insignificant.

UC's raise offer would leave us behind in inflation, setting us up to fall even further behind by 2027. Worse, their healthcare cuts would allow them to raise costs as much as they want, allowing them to take back hundreds if not thousands of dollars per month. Go here to see a comparison of our offer and UC's.

UC continues to bargain in bad faith and plans to unilaterally increase healthcare costs in 2025, all violating California law. Go here to sign a strike pledge today!

Go here to RSVP for our November 20 and 21 unfair labor practice strike today—and make sure all of your colleagues have as well!

Today, we are announcing that a ULP strike will take place at UCSF on November 20 and 21, 2024. We are limiting this strike to UCSF in order to give UC an opportunity to begin to bargain in good faith. If UC doesn't - and if they continue their pattern of unlawful behavior—all 20,000 UPTE workers across the state need to be prepared to act to hold UC accountable.

For five months, UC has refused to meaningfully engage with any of our proposals. Instead, they have withheld key information, bargained in bad faith, and threatened to impose healthcare cost increases without bargaining, in violation of California law. 

The University's refusal to bargain in good faith is not just illegal, it insults the commitment that each and every one of you has to your patients, research, and students. UC won't even tell us how many vacant positions they leave unfilled, or how many millions of dollars these vacancies save them.

Thousands of members participated in our strike vote at UCSF, voting yes to strike by 98% and dwarfing turnout from all past UPTE strike votes.

Over 75% of healthcare workers voted to strike, meaning that our power to hold UC accountable will be on full display at UCSF's Medical Centers, labs, and clinics.

A strike at UCSF may be announced at any time. UPTE will provide at least 10 days notice to the University and has already reminded them of their responsibility to plan for this.

Click here to find a strike FAQ.

We are limiting this strike to UCSF in order to give UC an opportunity to begin to bargain in good faith. If UC continues to commit illegal, unfair labor practices, all of us must be prepared for a statewide strike vote.

Have all of your colleagues pledged to strike already? Please ask to make sure they have today!

Our bargaining team has unanimously recommended a strike vote over UC's Unfair Labor Practices. You can cast your ballot online now at upte.org/vote.

What are some ways UC has bargained in bad faith, putting patient care and research at risk by prolonging the crisis of recruitment and retention?

• Sending representatives who lack the authority to address the critical issues we've raised at the bargaining table;

• Making proposals that they know we would not accept;

• Refusing to disclose the number of unfilled positions in our titles statewide—or how many millions of dollars they're saving by not filling budgeted staff.

UCSF members: cast your ballot now at upte.org/vote

Not at UCSF? Make sure you and your coworkers have signed your strike commitment cards so that if the time comes for a strike vote at your campus or workplace, you’ll be ready: upte.org/strike

Questions? Check out our ULP strike FAQ at upte.org/ucstrikefaq

We are now in our 5th month of negotiations and our contracts expire in less than 2 weeks. Yet the University has not ended its unfair practices, made significant movement on our priorities, nor even provided a complete contract proposal. 

UC has not provided any pay proposal at all for Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) and has not responded to proposals that UPTE made more than 2 months ago, such as Shift Differentials and Subcontracting.

At bargaining yesterday at UC Santa Cruz, UPTE members once again packed the room to share stories of how poor compensation, misclassification, lack of career progression and more are impacting our students and our research. We were also joined by State Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin who called on the University to address the affordability crisis, and by State Senator John Laird who pledged his support if a strike becomes necessary. 

Our rally was covered by KSBW Action News 8, local NPR affiliate KAZU 90.3, and Lookout Santa Cruz.

On Friday, October 11, UPTE filed an unfair labor practice charge in response to UC’s bad faith bargaining and illegal plan to implement unlimited healthcare cost increases while we are bargaining.

UC currently pays 76-95% of monthly healthcare premiums on Kaiser & UC Blue & Gold plans, thanks to the $25 annual limit we won in our last contract.

After significant increases in 2024, this saved up to $224/month compared to non-union employees.

By proposing to remove the cap, UC wants the ability to shift up to $2,451.37 per month in costs to us - numbers that are likely to increase dramatically in 2025 and beyond.

What UC is proposing in bargaining:

• No limit on healthcare premium increases

• $100 subsidy for Pay Band 1, $75 subsidy for Pay Band 2 (after their increases)

Some of what UC is planning to implement outside of bargaining in 2025:

• 9% increase in cost on pay bands 1 and 2 (those making less than $140,000)

• 11% increase in cost on pay bands 3 and 4 (those making more than $140,000)

• CORE PPO no longer no-cost (premium cost not announced)

For months, we have been met with UC's bad faith at the bargaining table, and unfair labor practices by the University even longer. UC is sitting on billions in reserves due to vacancies but fails to provide us with information we need - and are legally entitled to - about staffing, vacancies, or how much they are saving while our patients, research, and students suffer the effects of short staffing.

Adding insult to the University's predictably unacceptable proposals at bargaining, UC just announced massive increases to employee healthcare costs. They plan to increase premiums by 9-11%, eliminate the one no-cost insurance plan, raise co-pays from $20 to $30 per outpatient visit, and shift 30% of specialty drug prices to employees. UC never even proposed these changes to UPTE – it is just making the changes unilaterally.

Your bargaining team has unanimously recommended a strike vote over UC's Unfair Labor Practices. The affected UC locations (all or certain campuses) will be announced at the beginning of the vote, on October 21st. Only the campuses who are called on to strike will be asked to vote at this time.

Ballots will be sent via email and in-person voting locations will be announced on the 21st. Sign your strike commitment today and pledge to stand with your coworkers if a strike is necessary.

At last week's bargaining session, UC proposed to remove the current $25 cap on annual healthcare premium increases on Kaiser and Blue & Gold Plans in exchange for a $100 and $75 subsidy for those in Pay Bands 1 and 2, respectively.

Days before, UC revealed that they are planning 9-11% premium increases for 2025, alongside increases in co-pays and a new 30% coinsurance fee for specialty drugs of up to $150/prescription.

This subsidy might provide a benefit to those in pay bands 1 and 2 in 2025 but would increase rates by up to $126/month for those on pay bands 3 and 4 and allow UC to shift an unlimited amount of their cost onto everyone in subsequent years. 

With just a month before our contracts expire, UC is not only trying to keep our pay below inflation, they are trying to give themselves a free hand to push us even further and further behind each year by offsetting healthcare premium costs on us.

After 4 months of bargaining, we are now just a month away from our the expiration of our contracts. Instead of taking our concerns, our testimony, or our demands seriously, UC continues bargaining in bad faith and commits other unfair practices outside of bargaining.

One of UC's most egregious unfair labor practices is their failure to bargain in good faith over our demands that impact staffing levels. On April 12, 2023, we requested information that would help us better understand the depths of the recruitment and retention crisis, such as the number of vacant positions in UPTE job titles across the state. 18 months later, we have yet to receive any of this information.

Why is UC withholding this data? Do they not want the public to know how many budgeted healthcare providers, researchers, and technical positions are being left empty while patient care, research, and students suffer?

Enough is enough. After 4 months of bargaining, we are now just a month away from our contracts being expired. Instead of listening to your demands, concerns, and testimony, UC continues bargaining in bad faith and commits other unfair practices outside of bargaining.

UPTE's bargaining team was back at the table with the University of California last week at UC Santa Barbara. UC continues to reject UPTE's proposals regarding pay, reclassification, work-life balance, staffing, and job security.

When questioned, management's bargaining team has offered little or no explanation for rejecting proposals - even those that would cost the University little to nothing, such as improved rights to vacant positions or additional unpaid leave.

Fortunately, we know that UC has the resources to correct all of these issues. Our strikes in 2018/2019 and those by UAW academic workers in 2022 show that UC can be convinced to make the changes that we deserve. Join thousands of your colleagues and sign a strike commitment card today at upte.org/strike.

"College counseling today isn't about choosing a career or adjusting to being away from home. It's about keeping students alive and helping them get an education for a better future. It makes me wonder what UC is prioritizing if not student wellbeing and education," said Dr. Lily Clark, a Counseling Psychologist at UCSB CAPS.

We are now less than 2 months from our contracts’ expiration and UC is showing no urgency to reach an agreement. UC isn’t just rejecting our proposals - they are refusing to even acknowledge that issues like fair pay and compensation, work-life balance, job security, or staffing deserve serious consideration or discussion.

None of us want to strike, but we are not going to watch our talented and committed colleagues leave while our patients, our research, and our students suffer. We need to be ready to strike if that is the only thing that will convince UC to take our demands and their legal obligations seriously.

Sign our strike pledge today at upte.org/strike. All of us need to be ready to vote YES to strike and walk the picket line, if UC doesn’t change course and FAST.