Ninety-nine percent.
That is the percentage of “yes” votes the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299 received during their recent strike vote.
AFSCME Local 3299 is the largest labor union in the University of California, representing over 35,000 service workers, patient care technical workers, skilled craft workers, and more.
On Oct. 10, Local 3299 filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge against the Regents of the University of California for “failing and refusing to bargain in good faith,” “unilaterally changing health insurance co-pays, premiums, and expenses for prescription drugs,” and “failing to provide AFSCME with even the most basic information necessary and relevant to bargaining.”
An Unfair Labor Practice charge is filed by agencies or unions and alleges that conduct has occurred that violate laws established by the California Public Employment Relations Board.
“They don’t take us seriously, how important our job is,” said Janet Mucino, a senior cook with UC Santa Cruz Dining Services, a senior custodial worker, and AFSCME 3299 member. “We run UC. We clean bathrooms, we cook food, we clean gardens.”
On Oct. 31, the union posted on Instagram that workers authorized a system-wide Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike in a landslide vote. Eight days later, the union announced in a press release that workers across all UC campuses will strike for two days, beginning at 12:00 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 20, and ending at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 21. AFSCME 3299 workers at UCSC will be picketing at the base of campus.
The Student Side of Things
In preparation for picketing, AFSCME 3299 student interns, along with an organizer for UCSC Student Dining Workers Union (SDWU), held a strike orientation on Friday. In the presentation, they discussed Local 3299’s reasons for striking, strike times and locations, and what students can do to support striking workers.
Student Dining Workers Union (SDWU) is a collective of student dining hall, market, cafe and catering workers at UCSC fighting to unionize. While many full-time dining staff are members of AFSCME 3299, student dining workers are not part of the union.
“Conditions on this campus are pretty bad for students too. So making them realize that workers are also in a struggle with them in a sense … [is] very important,” said Tasha, an organizer with SDWU.
During the strike orientation, organizers discussed the right of student workers to strike in solidarity with unionized members in their workplace as granted by California Government Code Section 3562(e) and PERB Decision No. 213.
According to the AFSCME interns, spending money on dining services — meaning dining halls, markets, and cafes — is considered crossing the picket line, and students who wish to support the striking workers are encouraged to get food elsewhere.
“It’s hard for students to get access to food, and so we are working on things to supplement it,” said Alex A., an AFSCME 3299 student intern. “You shouldn’t have to pick between your conscience and being able to eat.”
AFSCME will be distributing food at the picket line from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days of the strike. Additionally, AFSCME interns suggested the Redwood Free Market and Cowell Coffee Shop as free, on-campus food options for students who wish to not cross the picket line. It is important to note that Cowell Coffee Shop will be closed during the strike dates for Indigithanx.
City on a Hill Press reached out to Executive Director of Dining and Hospitality Services Bill Prime who was “unable to provide an interview.” Instead he stated that, “In the event of a strike campus will provide communication to the community to help everyone prepare for any potential impacts on dining and other campus services.”
The Contracts
The union is striking over the failed bargaining of two contracts: The patient care technical contract that expired on July 31 after AFSCME and UC reached an impasse, and the service worker contract that expired Oct. 31.
In the ULP filing, AFSCME claims that UC made illegal contract changes regarding healthcare, as they were being imposed in a time of bargaining hiatus, which occurs after an impasse is reached. Legally, UC is unable to introduce new proposals in a time of hiatus, and the right to bargain in the patient care technical contract was lost when it expired on July 31.
“The University came to the negotiation table not in good faith,” Mucino said. “[What] they proposed is not to help us live, it’s just to survive, you know? They tried to increase our health insurance [costs], all the copayments, everything involved in health.”
According to AFSCME, UC’s proposed contract would increase healthcare premiums by nine to 11 percent, leading to an up to $800 average annual cut to take-home pay.
Take-home pay is the net amount of income employees receive after deducting taxes, benefits, and voluntary contributions from their paychecks.
According to the ULP, many of UC’s contract proposals sought “to roll back hard-won victories that AFSCME secured for its members over a decade ago.” In the filing, AFSCME expressed dissatisfaction with UC’s proposals to increase parking prices for bargaining workers, increase healthcare costs, and the removal of annual step increases in pay.
An increase in pay is part of an ongoing effort in which AFSCME 3299 is advocating for a $25 minimum wage for all workers across the entire UC, including non-union affiliated employees and student workers.
“It’s really important to get the entire contract at once because while they may say that they’re gonna give the $25 an hour minimum wage, they will usually find a way to extract it in other methods, whether that is parking, or healthcare premiums, or something else,” Alex said.
Despite a UC-wide budget cut of $125 million and a UCSC-specific deficit of $111 million, UC chancellors were all approved to receive raises for fiscal year 24-25. Chancellor Larive had an approved 28.5 percent salary increase, though she refused the raise.
“Clearly the money is going somewhere,” Alex said. “They do have the money. They are just simply not willing to put it into their students and workers, particularly their most vulnerable students and workers.”
“Now it’s time where we raise our voices and do whatever we need to do,” Mucino said. “We don’t have another choice you know? We don’t want but we need to. They push us.”
