Posts tagged Santa Cruz
Newsmakers 2025: Barista who helped unionize Verve says the experience changed how she saw herself
January 5, 2026 // In the weeks that followed, Pavy’s coworkers elected her to represent employees of the downtown Santa Cruz coffeehouse in negotiations with Barr and O’Donovan, alongside representatives from the Fair Avenue and San Francisco cafés, and UFCW. So far, the bargaining committee has met once to discuss non-economic parts of the contract, like workplace rules and job security. The process is expected to last through 2026.
Santa Cruz Markets Workers Call Off Strike
November 26, 2025 // The union — representing clerks and meat department workers from both locations in Santa Barbara and Goleta — said gains include wage increases, improvements in sick and bereavement leave, protection of health and welfare benefits, and more. Last week, workers said they planned to strike due to the employer’s alleged unfair labor practices, such as attempting to bribe union members to leave the union. Since the stores came under new management last year, six employees have quit due to poor working conditions, according to union member Erik Mendez. Mendez is in his seventh year working for the markets and currently works in the iconic Goleta location’s meat department.
Unionized Berkeley REI Workers Get Pay Raises After Labor Board Alleged They Were Shut Out
August 7, 2025 // Following a years-long organizing effort, some workers at a Berkeley REI store are set to get retroactive pay raises and bonuses as part of a labor deal with two unions representing workers at 11 stores across the country. The agreement reached last week between REI Co-op, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union — which represents the Berkeley workers — and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union establishes a national bargaining structure for unionized workers that provides compensation some workers previously did not receive between 2022 and 2024.
REI Greensboro, NC, workers vote to unionize
February 3, 2025 // Greensboro workers began the process after REI reduced the workforce by 275 company wide in October 2023. Most of the cuts were "leads," who are the most experienced in the chain, with the Greensboro store losing two. According to the RWDSU, Greensboro joins 10 others fighting for fair pay, guaranteed hours, a path to full-time status, and transfer opportunities within REI. The vote to unionize was conducted Friday by the National Labor Relations Board.
Monterey Bay Aquarium employees to unionize, public input wanted for Highway 9 improvement project near Felton
January 16, 2025 // ...employees at the Monterey Bay Aquarium have announced plans to unionize
University of California academic workers expand strike over response to pro-Palestinian protests
May 29, 2024 // The union is demanding “amnesty” for all academic employees, students, student groups, faculty and staff who face disciplinary action or arrest due to protest,” along with the protection of free speech and political expression on campus. It is also calling for divestment from UC’s “known investments in weapons manufacturers, military contractors, and companies profiting from Israel’s war on Gaz,” and disclosure of all of the UC system’s funding sources and investments. The union quickly filed an unfair labor practice charge against UCLA following the clashes earlier this month and later submitted similar violations over police action at UC San Diego and UC Irvine encampments.
UC Academic Workers Strike Over Pro-Palestinian Protest Arrests
May 22, 2024 // UAW 4811 is carrying out what the UAW calls a “Stand Up Strike.” Instead of a simultaneous systemwide strike like the one these same workers carried out in 2022, UAW 4811 is calling on its members on individual UC campuses, starting with Santa Cruz, to walk out. The strategy echoes the successful one that UAW’s traditional autoworker members staged against the big three U.S. automakers in 2023.
City of Santa Cruz workers will strike next week
October 5, 2022 // “It’s unfortunate that it has reached this point,” said Santa Cruz City Manager Matt Huffaker. “But we are striving to meet the needs of our employees while also being fiscally responsible.” Workers with SEIU Local 521, are frustrated with the city’s inability to recruit and retain employees to reach adequate staffing levels, treatment of its workers, and the attempts to compare cost-of-living adjustment proposals accepted by city executives to the salaries of front-line service workers, according to union organizers.
Health care workers in Northern California strike over short staffing, COVID protocols, pay
April 20, 2022 // "By moving forward with today's costly and disruptive strike, union leadership has made it clear they are willing to put politics above patients and the nurses they represent -- despite the intervention of federal mediators and our willingness to bargain in good faith while under threat of a strike," the health network said.
City employees march against low staffing
March 25, 2022 //