UC Santa Cruz frontline and service workers gathered at the base of campus for an American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299 Strike on Nov. 17 and 18. Participation on the first day peaked at around 175 people towards 1 p.m.
Protected by ponchos and umbrellas, striking workers and community members marched across the intersection of Bay and High streets between start-and-stop rain. Photos by Reggie Sasaki.
“Frontline workers at UCSC are just trying to keep up with housing costs and the increase in expenses across the board,” Kimberly Cox, a custodian and a member of AFSCME Local 3299, told City on A Hill Press at the picket line this past Monday.
AFSCME Local 3299 is the largest employee union for the University of California. The union’s workers help power all 10 UC campuses and several UC-owned clinics, labs and medical centers.
“It’s the frontline workers that really hold this place together,” Cox said. “It’s the people with their hands and their feet doing all the work here, and we’re not being compensated for the energy that we’re putting in.”
In the face of a cost-of-living crisis, AFSCME Local 3299 workers are asking the UC for a contract that guarantees livable wages, housing assistance and affordable healthcare, which they say the UC has continuously failed to provide. AFSCME has been in contract negotiations with the UC since Feb. 2024. This week’s strikes are in response to a negotiation standstill that has lasted since August.
Revolutionary Student Organization (RSO) Santa Cruz, organizes a solidarity rally at UCSC’s Quarry Plaza at 11 a.m. About 30 students gathered. Organizers and AFSCME union workers spoke and led chants with the crowd as students played drums and banged pots and ladles together. Around 11:45 a.m., the group of about 80 students took over the right car lane of Hagar Drive and marched down to the base of campus to Coolidge Drive to join the AFSCME picket. Photos by Nidhi Bhat.
A passing cyclist high fives a marcher as they near the base of the UCSC campus. Photo by Reggie Sasaki.
Union workers from AFSCME Local 3299 struck at all UC campuses. The union’s official website expected over 65,000 participants. Four student protestors were arrested at UCLA. At the time of publication, no other arrests occurred on other campuses in relation to the strike.
At UCSC specifically, frontline and service workers face the brunt of the cost-of-living crisis. The median AFSCME Local 3299 wage falls at $25, only half of what would allow a worker to afford rent for a one-bedroom house near the UCSC campus.
“I’m here because I work three jobs, seven days a week, and the UC has done nothing to fix it and give us affordable wages,” said Chris Contreras, a senior custodian and union member. “One job should be enough, not three.”
Other workers reported living up to two hours away, or even sleeping in their cars.
Another key concern strikers cited was the sharp increase in insurance premiums many are seeing this year.
“Almost 25 percent of my check goes straight to insurance, I have to support my family with the other 75 percent, but it’s not enough,” said Reynardo Martinez, a union member and cook at Rachel Carson/Oakes dining hall.
When asked for a request to comment, Heather Hansen, a communications strategist for the UC Office of the President, referred City on a Hill Press to the UC’s official statement on the AFSCME Local 3299 strike, which reads, “Despite [the] UC’s continued outreach, AFSCME has not presented any substantive counterproposals since April 2025.” The UC’s final offer in April was a roughly 19 percent wage increase distributed over the next five years. AFSCME argues the increase is not enough and is spread over too long a duration.
After a brief rally at the base of the UCSC campus, union members and students marched to and from the UCSC Fleet Services building. Photos by Reggie Sasaki.
“After 24 years of giving my body, sacrificing my family, for this university, it makes me more than anything frustrated and sad. I lost my second job because of this [on-the-job] injury … I’m struggling right now,” said Janet Mucino, a custodian and member of AFSCME’s executive board and bargaining team, in reference to the UC’s unequal distribution of wages and benefits.
Mucino injured her left leg while working as a custodian on campus. She cited understaffing and overwork induced by the UC’s hiring freeze as the main reasons behind her and her coworkers’ injuries. Despite the injury affecting her ability to walk, Mucino showed up to strike, cane in hand, with a positive spirit.
“We deserve better, and that’s why we are here,” Mucino said. “We will keep going until we get what we deserve.”