Catherwood LibraryILR School

AFSCME Local 3299, the official union of the University of California, is planning a university-system-wide strike between May 7 to 9. The UC workers recently voted to authorize the strike on April 18th. Roughly 25,000 workers across ten different campuses are represented by the union. AFSCME cited a number of reasons for the strike, including racial and gender wage disparities. The UC’s have also been systematically shrinking the workforce, opting to outsource low-wage jobs to contract workers instead of keeping full-time employees with benefits. Many displaced workers are coming back as contract workers, which puts downward pressure on overall wages and benefits packages. Most recently, the UC refused the union’s demands to freeze healthcare costs, increase benefits, end the practice of hiring outside contractors, and strengthening the system for protecting workers against sexual harassment. Their counter offer was just a 2 percent annual increase in wages for the next four years, prompting the workers’ to strike. On April 25th the Associated Students of UCSD unanimously passed a resolution of support for the union’s efforts.