AFSCME 3299 and UPTE Go On Strike
Photo credit: Ray Briare
Story by Ray Briare and Mavis Holley || Listen on SoundCloud
“Whose university? Our university! Who’s got the power? We’ve got the power!”
Two labor unions went out on strike at UCSB on Wednesday morning, February 26th. The strike is actually statewide, affecting all UC campuses.
The biggest union involved is the local 3299 chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, representing 37,000 UC service and patient care workers, approximately 600 at UCSB. They went on strike from the 26th to 27th. The other union is the University Professional and Technical Employees, or UPTE, representing more than 19,000 health care, technical and research workers across UC, over 300 at UCSB. UPTE went on strike from the 26th to 28th.
Last fall, both unions filed charges of unfair labor practice with the California Public Employment Relations Board, demanding that UC produce a list of vacant positions in their bargaining units, as required by law. The charges also accuse UC of illegally raising members’ health care costs without negotiating. Now, the unions are striking to protest the unfair practices and prompt the university to negotiate.
At UCSB, actions started loud and early, as strikers, mostly in green AFSCME t-shirts, marched from Stork Tower, chanting and drumming through campus. At about 9.30 a.m., they returned to the tower and were joined by scores of other strikers, mostly in blue UPTE t-shirts. The marchers doubled in number and set out for another raucous lap. There was a rally with speakers scheduled for 11.30. Before the rally began, we spoke with a local UPTE member.
BENARON: “Michael Benaron, I’m a PA [Physician Assistant], and I work at Student Health Services here on campus. And I’ve been involved with organizing here since I came on to the university four years ago. And it’s really been incredible. It’s very been grassroots. All members have participated. We had open forums of what people were actually wanting. And we put all this energy and time to it. And the UCS just doesn’t really show like they care.”
Staff at UC’s Parnassus Hospital in San Francisco says that they are so understaffed that patients sometimes wait in the emergency department for days before they can get a bed. KCSB’s Ray Briare asked Mr. Benaron if short staffing is an issue at UCSB’s Student Health Center.
BENARON: “100%. I work in immediate care — the acute illnesses and injuries that come into Student Health Services. We turn away students every day because we don’t have adequate staffing to meet the demands.”
BRIARE: “What do you think is the impact of you not being at work today? Or all of UPTE not being at work today and tomorrow and Friday?”
BENARON: “I mean it shows that we’re united. It shows that we’re not going to put up for this like pennies, that they’re going to give us on raises, and that we deserve better.”
Around noon, dozens of AFSCME and UPTE strike members congregated on the lawn surrounding Storke Tower. The two unions united in a series of chants and calls to action. In addition to union members, UCSB educators expressed their solidarity and support for both unions’ actions through personal accounts of how they have benefited from their advocacy and political involvement, such as with the creation of fair contracts.
One educator said, “I feel grateful to stand in unity to share how much we want this work to be sustainable, safe and even more effective. And we’re going to keep standing here because when we fight, we win!”
Chase Morgan, a member of UCAFT, a UCSB union of lecturers and librarians, spoke. He engaged with the crowd, asking union workers, “what work do you do on campus?” He elicited enthusiastic responses from UCSB workers who provide vital services for the university to thrive.
Photo credit: Ashley Segat
Fernando Chavez is a lead medical assistant at the Student Health Center. He spoke about the effects of the UCSB low wages, which do not equip workers to live close to their work.
CHAVEZ: “We’ve got people that commute hour and a half, you know, one way and another way. You know, people that have to live in cars, — I have a friend, he’s a groundskeeper that’s basically living out of his car.”
Considering the importance of these on-campus workers, Chavez expressed, “For me, all I want is UC to treat their workers like they should. We are the backbone of this campus and every campus.”
Tran Nguyen, a communication coordinator for AFSCME, expressed that the UC has been practicing illegal bargaining.
NGUYEN: “We want them to engage in bargaining in good faith. We want them to stop trying to silence us, trying to intimidate us and trying to interfere with our workers’ free speech and their rights to access their union rep. We have seen them trying to limit or interfere with our workers simply asking, Who are my union reps? What are my union rights if I join?”
Further, considering the high vacancy rates across California, she explained, “the real people putting patients at risk are the UCs for not taking care of the frontline workers that have kept this institution running since the pandemic.”
Finally, she says, “This isn’t a contract strike per se. We’re not even in a negotiation period. They’re illegally trying to intimidate us from even coming up with a proper contract to begin with.”