UPTE Ends 1-Day Unfair Labor Practice Strike, Calls on UC to End Unlawful Behavior & Engage in Meaningful Bargaining
Check out press coverage of our strike from:
On April 1, twenty thousand UPTE members at every University of California healthcare center, campus, and key laboratories participated in an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike. The strike was in response to UC’s decision to engage in a pattern of illegal behavior, including continued attempts to unilaterally and unlawfully increase health insurance costs for some of the most vulnerable union members outside of the bargaining process. UC has also forced newly organized groups of workers into their own separate negotiation process, which has rendered the bargaining process hopelessly impractical and ineffective—a classic “divide-and-conquer” strategy that violates the law.
“Students come to us for help navigating challenges like loss, mental health crises, substance use, assault, and more, and are often met with long wait times and difficulty receiving care. It’s frustrating that instead of engaging with us in a meaningful way to address the staffing crisis, UC is refusing to seriously consider proposals from the workers who support student mental health, or sincerely discuss any of the proposals that have been brought forth to address the staffing crisis that is rampant across the UC. Forcing newly-organized workers into their own separate bargaining tables is a trick to delay negotiations and demoralize workers, and does nothing to help students," said Angie Bryan, a behavioral health clinician at UC Santa Barbara.
UC has consistently refused to make any meaningful progress at the bargaining table, including rejecting zero-cost proposals that would attempt to address the staffing crisis leading to negative patient outcomes, threatening the state’s bird flu response, delaying care for at-risk patients, and impacting research on diseases like cancer. UPTE members have been bargaining for eight months, with all contracts having expired in October 2024.
“Patients might wait three months for an optometry appointment, and if they need to see an ophthalmologist, that wait could exceed six months. When I see patients for follow-up, it’s often later than what I would consider optimal simply because our schedule is so backed up. When you need help with your vision, even a short delay can greatly disrupt your life. It’s disappointing that UC would rather ignore our suggestions on how to make things better than commit to addressing the staffing crisis we’re dealing with. How does illegally increasing healthcare costs address any of this?” said Andrew Vo, optometrist at UC San Diego Health.
While UC leadership dismisses workers' concerns about the staffing crisis, executives readily sound the alarm in other settings. In 2023, UC’s CFO, Nathan Brostrom, stated in a Board of Regents meeting that vacancy rates were three times higher than pre-pandemic levels, impacting students, patients, and the broader public. Similarly, President Drake himself told the Assembly Budget Subcommittee #3 on Education Finance earlier this year that UC is leaving thousands of positions vacant year-over-year as a money-saving measure, saying “We have thousands of vacant positions that we continue to roll vacant year after year and use that funding to be able to support the gaps that we have.”
Between October 2018 and 2023, the number of senior executive leaders grew by 42.5%, while the number of front-line professional and support staff increased by only 18.6%. Additionally, UC plans to spend over $30 billion between FY 2023-29 on capital projects, public-private partnerships, and the acquisition of hospitals and medical centers. Meanwhile, UC continues to experience a 54% turnover rate among healthcare workers and a 67% turnover rate among researchers over the past five years.
“We believe UC’s priority should be the people of California and that they have an obligation to follow the law just like any other employer in our state. When they egregiously trample on our legal rights and protections, it emboldens other wealthy and powerful bullies to do the same to the rest of us—but we’re willing to fight to hold them accountable. It isn’t clear to us why UC has such a hard time respecting the rights of workers. What is clear is that when frontline workers speak out about the staffing crisis, UC is quick to dismiss it—while executives will report the same concerns internally,” said Amy Fletcher, a Staff Research Associate at UC Davis and a member of UPTE’s bargaining team.