LOS ANGELES – Members of AFSCME Local 3299 have called off their historic, open-ended strike at University of California campuses that was scheduled to begin Thursday.
That’s because Local 3299 negotiators secured a late-night deal from UC after two years of trying.
Higher wages, more affordable health care and better staffing are all part of the last-minute agreement that avoids what was to be a massive strike of service and patient care workers throughout the UC system.
During late-night negotiations prompted by a midnight strike deadline, Local 3299 members won multiple pay increases and a higher minimum wage for thousands of workers in UC facilities across the state, plus several other workplace improvements.
The tentative agreement was announced early Thursday morning and will be voted on by union members next week.
Local 3299 President Michael Avant hailed the agreement.
“It means UC’s most vulnerable workers will no longer have to choose between paying for health care and paying for groceries,” Avant, who works as a patient transporter at UC San Diego Medical Center, told the Los Angeles Times. “This process took persistence and involved great sacrifices by every single one of our members. The tentative agreements we’ve reached ensure they will be better off, and better able to keep pace with rising costs so they can build a better future for their families.”
The agreement, if ratified, would be a major victory for UC workers, whose wages were not keeping up with the rising cost of living. It also shows how powerful workers can be when they organize, bargain collectively and stand strong when management tries to impose unfair terms on employees.
The planned open-ended strike would have been the first of its kind in the history of the UC health care network, according to Local 3299.