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?

Occupational Therapy is critical for children facing developmental delays or disabilities and adults recovering from an injury or illness. Early intervention and regular treatment can mean the difference between recovery or permanent disability and loss of independence. I've heard from members across so many of our professions that relate to the impacts of short-staffing and recruitment issues.

For the last seven months, however, 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.

For many of us, career progression and proper classification are top of mind. We've been clear that UC needs to make progress in two key areas:

Clear Criteria for Career Progression: UC must develop transparent criteria for progressing through a classification series, differentiating specific tasks, responsibilities, and requirements for each (eg. from Physical Therapist 1-3, Systems Administrator 1-3, or Staff Research Associate 1-4). Without clearer criteria, there is no way to ensure that workers are appropriately classified - and compensated - for the work we do.
An Enforceable Process: UC must agree to allow denied reclassification requests to be appealed to an independent arbitrator, who can overturn denials if they do not conform to the criteria for moving through a title series.

UC's response to these proposals? They addressed neither concern, instead, only promising to give a final answer within seven months of a reclass request being submitted. Click here to see a comparison of our other proposals and their responses.

Fortunately, we know we can move UC, just like we did in 2019. Today, UC is sitting on $27 billion in liquid capital and many of our demands would likely be cost-neutral (or even save UC money by reducing costly turnover).

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.

In solidarity,

Ursula Quinn
UPTE Vice President & UCLA Chapter Co-Chair
UPTE Bargaining Team member
UCLA Occupational Therapist

I’m voting YES to strike - will you join me?

Every vote counts—let’s end this week with a strong showing

Our strike vote starts now!