Overview
- The walkout is planned across 18 UC health facilities, including UCSF Mission Bay and Parnassus, UC Berkeley, and Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland.
- Three unions are coordinating the action: AFSCME Local 3299 (about 40,000 service and patient care technical workers), UPTE-CWA Local 9119 (21,000 healthcare, research and technical staff), and the California Nurses Association (25,000 nurses).
- Union leaders cite wages that lag inflation, high living costs, chronic understaffing, and rising turnover as the central reasons for the strike.
- UC says it has bargained in good faith and calls the unions’ wage and benefit proposals unreasonable, noting it has offered competitive packages with pay increases and improved benefits.
- Both sides say patient safety will be protected, with UC deploying contingency staffing and the unions forming a patient protection task force for emergency coverage.