Posts tagged University of California
UC reaches contract agreement with 21,000 employees, averting a strike
November 10, 2025 // The union was set to strike Nov. 17 and 18 and be joined by more than 60,000 supporters from two additional UC unions, AFSCME 3299 and the California Nurses Assn. The unions said it would have been the largest labor strike in UC history. AFSCME 3299 represents patient care technical workers, custodians, food service employees, security guards, secretaries and other workers at UC hospitals and campuses. UC and UPTE said details of the tentative contract, which union members must ratify, would be released next week. Prior to the agreement, UPTE workers were seeking investments from UC into retention, pay and ensuring safe working conditions to help address a staffing crisis that the union said "threatens patient care, student services, and the research mission at the heart of the UC system."
‘UC workers are going to end up homeless’: 86,000 University of California employees plan massive strike
November 7, 2025 // The University of California, which has been negotiating separately with the three unions, condemned the planned strike as "an attempt to pressure the university into accepting unreasonable wage and benefit demands that would put UC in a financially precarious position and jeopardize its mission of teaching, research and public service."
In landslide victory, 7,200 UC professionals join United Auto Workers in unionization effort
September 8, 2025 // In a win for labor, 7,200 researchers and public service professionals, or RPSPs, across the University of California system announced Tuesday the formation of a new union after a vote in late August. The vote passed with 83% of the 3,692 ballots cast voting “yes.” The thousands of previously nonunionized employees now represented by RPSP-UAW, will join over 50,000 UC workers organized with the United Auto Workers, or UAW.
Commentary: Unions Are Shrinking Nationwide—But Not in California
September 3, 2025 // California, though, is noteworthy for its steady union presence. It hasn’t fluctuated much since 2005, despite the national decline. Further, the federal data set used to produce the union figures does not include home health care and child care workers who are classified as self-employed. In California, that takes in some 700,000 workers, even though their hourly wages are negotiated with individual counties through unions.
UAW Local 4811 pushes for immigrant protections, pay equity in UC negotiations
August 25, 2025 // About 33,000 of the over 57,000 employees under UAW Local 4811, including academic student employees and graduate student researchers, are being represented in the ongoing negotiations. UAW Local 4811 is also representing nearly 5,000 student services and advising professionals in the determination of another bargaining unit contract – the first contract for the new group, which was recognized by the University in April. There are five bargaining units under UAW Local 4811 – academic student employees, graduate student researchers, student services and advising professionals, postdoctoral scholars and academic researchers – three of which are being represented in the current negotiations. Once a new contract is determined, ASEs and GSRs will merge to simplify bargaining and implementation, according to a press release from the UC Office of the President.
Workers at Children’s Hospital Oakland Extend Strike Into Second Week
June 25, 2025 // In April, 98% of union members voted against integrating with UCSF, according to NUHW, which represents some 1,300 workers at the hospital. The union, which argues that the takeover plan is in violation of its contracts with the hospital, filed a motion to force arbitration as part of a last-ditch effort to block the move. A court hearing on the motion is scheduled for Thursday, just over a week before the transition is set to take effect, on July 6.
Dozens of UC Workers, Labor Leaders Arrested While Protesting Understaffing, Unfair Wages
May 20, 2025 // Lorena Gonzalez, the president of the California Labor Federation, and Teresa Romero, the national president of United Farm Workers, joined about 20 union-backed UC workers who were zip-tied and removed from the William J. Rutter Center at UC San Francisco’s Mission Bay campus just after 9:30 a.m.
Workers at Bay Area UC campuses join statewide strike over wages, conditions
April 3, 2025 // Workers at Bay Area UC campuses join statewide strike over wages, conditions sanfrancisco By Tim Fang Updated on: April 1, 2025 / 11:33 AM PDT / CBS San Francisco Workers at University of California campuses and medical facilities in the Bay Area joined thousands of employees statewide Tuesday in a one-day strike, claiming unfair labor practices. About 20,000 employees represented by the University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE) and nearly 40,000 workers with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees began their strike around 7 a.m. UC Berkeley, UCSF, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory were among the Bay Area locations where workers were striking.
‘Time is running out.’ University unions rush to organize before the Trump White House
December 17, 2024 // Between 2012 and 2023, the number of unionized graduate student and postdoctoral workers more than doubled, from roughly 64,000 to 150,000. Faculty unions also increased by 7%, from 374,000 to 402,000, in the same period, the report said. Today, more than a third of graduate-student and postdoctoral workers are unionized while a quarter of faculty are. “Among faculty, the drive for unionization has been strongest among non-tenure track faculty,”
A California labor union helped oust a Democrat from the state Capitol. His replacement wants to curb union power.
December 10, 2024 // "This is an unprecedented circumstance where a labor union spent well over a million dollars of their members' monies to take down a Democrat with a solid labor record to the benefit of a Republican that has been anti-labor throughout his legislative career," Newman said. "It's really stunning." The California Federation of Labor gave Choi a 6% on its annual legislative scorecard in 2022 when he served in the state Assembly, where he voted against bills to support fast-food workers, allow striking workers to keep health benefits and protect farmworkers who unionize. The same year, Newman received an 87% score, voting in favor of many union-backed bills.