UC has threatened to impose its "Last, Best and Final Offer" (LBFO)—review how far behind that offer would leave us and how much more we won in 2019 after UC's LBFO. Let’s send a clear message to UC: we are prepared to strike for as long as it takes to win the changes we need to continue delivering world-class healthcare, doing world-class research, and providing world-class education.
Vote YES to strike before October 2!
Why I’m voting YES to strike
I’m Paul Arcoleo, a Research & Development Engineer 2 at UC San Diego. My team helps students and researchers build what’s next. Yet for years, basic career advancement—like reclassification to match the work I’ve actually been doing—has been opaque by design. Add in rising healthcare costs, hundreds a month for parking, and wages that lag far behind industry standards, and UC risks losing the very people who make its labs run.
I’m voting YES to authorize a strike across the UC system, because our strike vote is how we exercise power to fix what’s broken: fair reclassification and raises that keep experienced staff, predictable healthcare costs, and policies that let us take sick time without fear. We all know the stakes: if we can’t afford to stay, UC loses the institutional knowledge that keeps programs strong—and students lose mentors they rely on.
If you’ve ever thought, “This system won’t change,” this is your moment to prove it can—when we vote together.
A YES vote is how we limit healthcare cost increases, raise wages, and make career progression real—so people can stay and do the work they love. Your strike vote is how you exercise power to make those changes in your workplace.
The most powerful thing you can do today is vote YES—and ask your coworkers to do the same. Let’s make sure we turn out, vote in massive numbers, and send a message to UC that enough is enough—it’s time to reset UC’s priorities.
In solidarity,
Paul Arcoleo
UPTE Unit Representative
Research & Development Engineer 2, UC San Diego
My name is Carina Jauregui, and I’m an Animal Health Technician 4 at UC San Francisco in the Sandler Neurosciences Center, supporting research into neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. I chose this work because it matters to families like mine—my mother has a neurodegenerative disease—and because quality animal care is the foundation of reliable science.
I’m also a single mom supporting my son and my retired parents. Because UC pay is so far below what it should be for the skills and experience our work demands, I can’t afford to live near campus. I tried every option—hostels and alternative housing—and after a few close calls, I ended up sleeping in my car, searching each night to find a place to shower and brush my teeth, so I could keep doing this vital work. As unreal as this may seem, I am not alone; many more people are just scraping by while contributing to world-class research, top-tier patient care, and technical expertise.
That’s why I’m voting YES to strike. We deserve fair pay and humane staffing so our science stands on solid ground. We’re not ID numbers on a badge; we are not just Social Security numbers, so that UC can electronically transfer money into our bank account. We’re people with faces, families, and dreams of living a better life. When the people caring for research animals can’t afford to care for themselves, science suffers—and so do the patients counting on future treatments.
If you’ve felt like just a number, now is our chance to show our faces, our stories, and our power—together.
Voting to strike isn’t about disruption—it’s about recognition. It’s how we win a contract that lets us keep doing the work we love without sacrificing our health, families, and futures.
Join me in voting YES to authorize a strike.
In solidarity,
Carina Jauregui
UPTE Workplace Representative
Animal Health Technician 4, UC San Francisco
I’m Jewell Justiniani-Allen, a Clinical Social Worker 3 at UCI Health. For sixteen years, I’ve helped patients and families navigate some of their hardest days. Lately, I’ve watched delays stack up in the Emergency Department at UCI Health — Fountain Valley and experienced our social work teams stretched beyond our jobs—because we can’t retain the coworkers we need.
When experienced professionals leave, patient care is delayed and ultimately suffers. When healthcare costs shift onto us and morale sinks, everyone feels it—patients included. We are world-class at UC. But “world-class” requires staffing we can retain, wages that reflect experience, predictable healthcare costs, and improved work-life balance so we can show up fully for our patients.
I’m voting YES to authorize a UC systemwide strike on September 22 because nothing changes unless we’re part of the fight. A strong YES tells UC we won’t accept endless delays at the bargaining table that undermine patient care.
If you’re on the fence, ask yourself: Do you see yourself still working under these conditions a year from now? Nothing changes unless we act together. A YES vote is the first step toward capping healthcare costs, fixing retention, and restoring pride in our work.
Please vote. Bring a coworker. Let’s win a contract that lets us do the work our communities deserve.
Vote YES to strike.
In solidarity,
Jewell Justiniani-Allen
UPTE Unit Representative
Clinical Social Worker 3, UC Irvine
After more than a year of bargaining and multiple strikes, it is important to remember that we win by lasting one day longer than UC. This is how we won significantly more in raises and stopped UC’s pension cuts in 2019. Voting YES to strike today is the best way to let UC know that we are ready to strike for as long as it takes to win.
Thousands of UPTE members across the University of California system have already cast their ballots—and we’re just getting started. UC is counting on fatigue. They want us to stop showing up so they don’t have to fix what’s broken.
A decisive YES vote proves we won’t quit on ourselves, our patients, our students, our research, or each other. We love our work and want UC to stay a great place to build a career and support ourselves and our families. That takes a contract worthy of the people who make UC a world-class public research university system.
I’m voting YES because recruitment and retention are patient-care issues. As an inpatient physical therapist at Jacobs Medical Center at UC San Diego Health, I have evaluated too many patients on gurneys in the congested hallways of our Emergency Department. I want to feel proud of the care I deliver, instead of apologetic for delays and lengthy wait times. Our communities and our families deserve better. That means keeping skilled staff here with real raises and healthcare protections, not watching them leave because UC won’t bargain seriously. Our unified vote is how we force the issue and end this chapter with a contract that lets us provide the care our communities need.
A strike is a big ask, but if that’s what it takes to win safe staffing and fair pay, then we will do it together. Make a plan with your coworkers and vote YES tonight. If you haven’t voted yet, take two minutes and do it now. Then reach out to a coworker who respects you—and who you respect—and ask them to join you tonight.
Cast your YES vote.
In solidarity,
Jon Sunada
UPTE Workplace Representative
Physical Therapist 3, UC San Diego
I’m voting YES to strike because our work is unsafe and unsustainable without limits and respect. We’re nurses, but not at the bedside—so we don’t get ratios. We can be handed an impossible number of patients and told, “That’s your assignment.” It’s not manageable. And yes—our time off gets denied, vacations refused, and boundaries ignored. It’s not safe, and it’s not sustainable.
I’m Chanel Bien-Aime, a nurse case manager in clinical case management at the UC Davis Medical Center, and I’m voting YES to strike because we started this fight strong, and we have to finish strong. UC hasn’t given up—so neither can we. Our membership keeps growing because people see their power in each other.
When someone’s unsure about voting yes to authorize a strike, I ask why: finances? Fear? Retaliation? We solve those concerns together, because winning a real contract—raises, staffing protections, healthcare cost caps—takes all of us pulling in the same direction. If you’re worried—about finances or retaliation—talk to us. We will problem-solve together. No one stands alone in UPTE.
If you haven’t voted yet, now’s the time. Let’s vote YES to strike and make UC fix what we all know is broken.
Vote YES to authorize a systemwide strike.
In solidarity,
Chanel Bien-Aime
UPTE Unit Representative
RN Case Manager, UC Davis
My name is Ruth Crowe, and I’ve been a licensed clinical social worker at Children’s Hospital Oakland for twenty-three years. Like so many of us, I’ve already sacrificed time, pay, and energy in this fight. However, UC is attempting to force through an offer that will drive more clinicians out the door and put patient care at risk. If we want to stop that from happening, we need to act together.
That’s why I have joined UPTE and voted YES to authorize a strike—and I’m asking you to do the same.
Here’s what’s at stake:
The hiring freeze: UC’s continued hiring freeze is stretching our teams thin. It puts more pressure on staff and compromises patient care.
Healthcare premiums: UC is proposing increased healthcare costs that many of us simply can’t afford. This is a direct hit to our paychecks and the well-being of our families. If we don’t stand up to UC, we could be paying thousands of dollars for our healthcare in January.
Market equity proposals: We’ve proposed fair market adjustments to bring our wages in line with industry standards. UC has already agreed to some—proving they know we’re right—but they’re refusing to go all the way.
Let’s send a clear message to UC: We won’t accept anything less than the fair contract we deserve. Vote YES to strike now.
In solidarity,
Ruth Crowe
Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Children’s Hospital Oakland
As a staff pharmacist at the UCLA Medical Center, I take pride in the high-quality care we deliver to our patients. I love my work. But loving our work shouldn’t mean accepting unfair treatment or watching coworkers burn out while costs climb and wages lag. That’s precisely why we have to stand together.
UC is counting on fatigue, but we won’t let it. I’m voting YES because UC’s strategy is to wait us out. Our strategy is persistence—showing with our votes that we’re not going away until we have a contract that keeps UC a great place to work: real raises, protections on healthcare costs, and respect for the people who make this place run. Every persistent “yes” builds the pressure UC can’t ignore.
UC wants us to stop showing up so it doesn’t have to fix what’s broken. A strong YES vote proves we won’t quit on ourselves, our patients, or each other.
If you’ve seen coworkers treated unfairly or watched care standards slip, you know it’s time. Vote YES today and show UC we’re still fighting for our patients, our families, and each other.
Let’s finish what we started—together.
Vote YES TODAY and send a message to UC.
In solidarity,
Kimberly Vo
UPTE Workplace Representative
Staff Pharmacist 1, UC Los Angeles
You will send a message to coworkers that you have their backs and what it will take to win a fair contract for all of us.
I’m Tina Kremzner-Hsing, a Museum Scientist at UC Berkeley. My job is to make our collections and digital history usable—so people can actually learn from the past. Most of my day is spent preserving and making our campus history accessible—millions of digital files, images, and records. It’s niche work, but it underpins teaching, research, and public memory. If this year has taught me anything, it’s that solidarity isn’t an idea. It’s a practice: showing up for each other, meeting organizers halfway, and standing together when it counts. Showing up together by voting YES moves UC.
I’m voting YES because no one else is going to fix this for us. Not donors, not headlines. Only workers—together—can reset UC’s priorities. That means showing up in numbers UC can’t ignore. For me, that includes winning caps on healthcare premium increases so raises actually matter, and keeping arts and humanities professionals at UC so we can preserve and share the cultural history our campuses exist to protect.
Only workers—together—move UC. Please vote YES to strike.
In solidarity,
Tina Kremzner-Hsing
UPTE Co-Unit Representative
Museum Scientist, UC Berkeley