By Vanguard Staff
BERKELEY, CA – More than 21,000 healthcare, research, and technical professionals across the University of California system announced Thursday they will launch a statewide strike November 17–18.
The workers, represented by University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE-CWA 9119), expect to be joined by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299 and the California Nurses Association (CNA), bringing the total number of UC employees participating to over 80,000. The work stoppage is projected to be the largest strike in UC history.
The announcement follows 16 months of negotiations and three weeks of mediation with the UC Office of the President that failed to produce an agreement. UPTE has already held three statewide strikes this year and a fourth at UCSF last November.
Union leaders said UC has refused to take seriously proposals to address the staffing crisis threatening patient care, student services, and the research mission at the heart of the university. They cited UC’s priorities—spending on new buildings and increasing executive pay—while laying off frontline workers and failing to address turnover and unsafe staffing levels.
“Every day in the UCSF ER, patients are waiting hours for care. Our wait times are now much longer than other comparable hospitals, and we simply don’t have enough staff to treat patients safely. Patient delays should not be the standard at one of the world’s leading medical centers. Yet we’re so short-staffed that we don’t even have enough service workers to stock ER supply cabinets, meaning your frontline providers are spending time hunting for supplies and equipment instead of being at your bedside,” said Matt Stephen, a senior physician assistant at UCSF and member of UPTE-CWA 9119.
“It’s frustrating to see UC pouring money into buying new buildings while telling the public they can’t afford more staff for the hospitals they already have. We’ve been sounding the alarm for over a year—how long until UC takes our concerns seriously?” Stephen added.
UPTE members said short-staffing has left hospitals, laboratories, and classrooms at a breaking point. In UC’s medical centers, they reported longer wait times for patients as departments struggle to stay fully staffed. In research labs, critical projects have been delayed or halted due to turnover and unfilled positions. On campuses, students have lost access to essential support services.
“Students with crises are seeking care in higher numbers than ever before and students wanting to start routine care are having to wait weeks, if not months, just to meet with a mental health clinician. This is all happening while UC keeps growing enrollment without increasing the staff to meet their needs,” said Michael McGlenn, a counseling psychologist at UC San Diego.
“Students should not have to struggle simply because we don’t have enough clinicians to provide timely care. UC’s ongoing refusal to invest in the people who make this system work is undercutting its own mission to support students and their success,” McGlenn said.
AFSCME 3299 and CNA represent more than 37,000 and 24,000 UC workers, respectively. Combined, the potential strike would involve approximately 83,000 workers across 10 campuses and five medical centers. If CNA and AFSCME 3299 decide to honor UPTE’s picket lines or hold their own strikes, the action would be the largest in UC’s history and one of the biggest in the nation this century.
“This fight is about the future of UC’s patients, students, and research,” said Dan Russell, UPTE president and chief negotiator and a business technical support analyst at UC Berkeley. “For more than a year, multiple unions across UC have been raising the alarm about unsafe staffing, overwork, and critical gaps in care and services. The fact that these warnings are being ignored proves there is a real crisis, and UC’s inaction is unacceptable. Our members will do whatever is necessary to hold UC accountable to its mission of providing world-class healthcare, research, and education for all Californians.”
The workers preparing to strike include physician assistants, optometrists, pharmacists, case managers, rehabilitation specialists, mental health clinicians, clinical lab scientists, staff research associates, IT workers, and others who support UC students, provide patient care, and advance research in fields such as climate change, food sustainability, and genomics.
UPTE is calling on UC to partner with frontline workers to address the staffing crisis by investing in retention, fair pay, and safe working conditions.
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