RELEASE | 86,000 University of California Campus and Health Center Workers will Strike Statewide on Nov. 17th and 18th
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 6, 2025
CONTACT: Todd Stenhouse, (916) 397-1131, toddstenhouse@gmail.
86,000 University of California Campus and Health Center Workers will Strike Statewide on Nov. 17th and 18th
40K AFSCME Local 3299 Represented Service and Patient Care Workers, 21k Research Technical workers represented by UPTE-CWA are walking off job over contract dispute, 25K UC Nurses to Join in Solidarity
CALIFORNIA: More than 65,000 University of California Campus and Health Center employees will mount a two-day strike on November 17th and 18th over the University’s failure to settle contracts addressing the cost of living and affordability crises facing the University’s most economically vulnerable workers.
AFSCME Local 3299, which represents more than 40,000 UC Service and Patient Care Technical workers, and UPTE-CWA, which represents 21,000 healthcare, research, and technical professionals, are leading the action, with 25,000 UC Nurses represented by the California Nurses Association joining in solidarity.
Representing custodians, food service workers, patient care assistants and hospital technicians who have been working without a contract for more than a year, AFSCME Local 3299 has detailed a growing affordability crisis facing UC service and patient care workers. Its members have been priced out of local housing markets by wage rates that have failed to keep pace with inflation, leading thousands to leave their jobs and fueling growing staff vacancy crisis at UC.
“During nearly two years of bargaining, UC has spent billions of dollars acquiring new facilities, lavishing exorbitant raises on its wealthiest executives and funding housing assistance programs to help these same ivory tower elites buy mansions or second homes—but it won’t offer its frontline workers enough to pay the rent or keep pace with the skyrocketing cost of groceries,” said AFSCME Local 3299 President Michael Avant. “Our members have had enough of UC’s serial elitism, tone deafness and blatant disrespect for the workers who make this institution run, and that’s why they will strike at every UC campus and Medical Center on November 17th and 18th.
Research has detailed a decline in real wages of nearly 10% and a growing housing affordability crisis plaguing the university’s frontline health and service workforce that has left thousands of UC employees to endure multi-hour commutes, sleep in their cars or rely on limited government housing subsidies. The weight of short staffing and uncompetitive job quality has led more than 13,000 UC service and patient care technical workers—or more than a third of this vital workforce segment–to voluntarily leave their jobs in the past three years.
“During the pandemic, UC administrators routinely called us ‘essential heroes,’” added Avant. “We were the ones sanitizing facilities to slow the spread, answering the call button, and giving sick patients their breathing treatments. Today, we’re being excluded from housing assistance that UC gives to its wealthiest employees; being told to accept wages that offer less purchasing power than we had seven or eight years ago, and being told that we should pay twice as much for our health insurance. It’s time for UC to get its priorities straight, and to treat us with the respect we’ve earned.”
Though UC is responsible for creating staffing contingencies to support its operations during this legally protected strike activity, AFSCME Local 3299
AFSCME Local 3299 picket times and locations for its affordability strike, at which UC Nurses will strike in solidarity, and UPTE-CWA will also be on strike, can be found here.
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