The University of California and the California Nurses Association, or CNA, a labor union representing over 25,000 registered nurses across 19 UC facilities, have reached a tentative contract agreement on pay and benefits after five months of negotiating. The agreement averted a planned two-day system-wide sympathy strike that was scheduled to begin Monday. 

The CNA had planned to strike Monday and Tuesday in solidarity with the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, or AFSCME 3299, which represents almost 40,000 patient care technical workers, custodians, food service employees, security guards, secretaries and other workers at UC hospitals and campuses, all of whom have been working without contract for over a year.

“Our priority (was) to ensure (that) UC nurses were given the resources to care for our patients and ourselves after years of short-staffing and under-resourcing,” said Kristan Delmarty in a press release. Delmarty is a registered nurse at UCLA Santa Monica and member of the CNA’s Board of Directors who helped negotiate the agreement.

The full details of the agreement between CNA and the UC system have not yet been released to the public. 

Originally, AFSCME had planned to go on strike with University Professional and Technical Employees CWA Local 9119, or UPTE-CWA 9119, a union representing about 21,000 professional and technical UC employees, in an attempt to secure higher wages. CNA planned to participate in a sympathy strike to show solidarity with other unions and increase pressure on the UC system. However, UPTE also recently reached a tentative agreement with the UC, leaving AFSCME to strike alone. 

The UC system also released a statement praising the agreement, claiming that it yields “meaningful pay and benefit increases for more than 24,000 UC nurses.”

“This agreement reflects the tireless work and collaboration of UC’s bargaining team, medical center leaders, and systemwide leadership working hand in hand with our dedicated nurses,” said Melissa Matella, Associate Vice President for Systemwide Employee and Labor Relations, in a statement. 

Delmarty also said the union “organized for and won important patient protections” in the new deal and noted that nurses will vote on whether to approve the tentative agreement later this week. 

However, according to CNA, thousands of nurses still plan to join the AFSCME picket line while off duty.

“We achieved our goal and now we stand together with our AFSCME colleagues, whose essential work demands the same resources guaranteed by a fair contract,” Delmarty said in a press release.

AFSCME said it is striking for “affordable wages” and “livable healthcare” because the UC system has failed to address the “unaffordability of life.”

The UC system claims that their own most recent offer to the AFSCME was “final,” and the “best (they could do) in a time of potentially catastrophic state and federal funding cuts.”

AFSCME is currently striking across all UC campuses.