California - UC Workers Achieve Victory!
IN SOLIDARITY – Delegates to AFSCME’s 38th International Convention in San Francisco last summer rally to support University of California employees — members of Local 3299 — who were then fighting to win a fair contract.
Photo Credit: Jim West
Los Angeles, California
After more than a year of fighting for justice, 20,000 University of California employees — members of AFSCME Local 3299 — won historic contract agreements that bring an end to poverty wages and achieve many other hard-fought goals.
Two groups of UC employees are celebrating victories. The first: 11,500 patient care workers — licensed vocational nurses, respiratory therapists and others employed at UC’s five medical centers — who overwhelmingly ratified their historic five-year contract last fall. The second: 8,500 service workers, including custodians, groundskeepers and food service workers. They reached a tentative five-year agreement this January, which they were expected to ratify in February (after AFSCME WORKS went to press).
The patient care workers’ pact — retroactive to October 2007 — will raise wages about 20 percent over five years. The service workers would see their wages rise by 16 percent over five years under their tentative agreement, plus an additional 6 percent in step increases for eligible employees.
Both agreements also establish, at all UC campuses, the first-ever statewide minimum wage — up to about $14.50 per hour by the end of the contract period.
“Winning these historic contracts has been a long and hard fight for all of our 20,000-plus members,” says Local 3299 Pres. Lakesha Harrison, a licensed vocational nurse at Santa Monica/UCLA Medical Center and an AFSCME International vice president. “It clearly shows that the concerns expressed by our membership about their working conditions were true and needed to be addressed.”
The local’s success underscored the effectiveness of AFSCME’s Member Action Teams (MATs), through which critical information was quickly disseminated throughout the 10-campus system.
The International union also partnered with Local 3299, providing substantial financial resources and leveraging its political power to sway influential figures in the state legislature and on the national stage. Among those who gave their support were former President Bill Clinton, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Lt. Gov. John Garamendi (D) and actor Danny Glover.
