announcement <\/a>from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299. Workers were told to report to work Thursday at the system\u2019s sprawling network of medical centers and campuses.<\/p>\nAFSCME\u2019s members include custodians, gardeners, dining hall food service staff, transportation workers and skilled craft workers such as plumbers and electricians. At UC hospitals, union members work in cafeterias, as radiology technologists and as nurse\u2019s aides, among other roles. <\/p>\n
Because about two-thirds of union members work at UC\u2019s academic health centers at UCLA, UC Irvine, UC San Francisco and UC Davis, hospital officials had been preparing for significant challenges to patient care as the strike deadline approached. <\/p>\n
What\u2019s in the deal<\/p>\n
If the deal is approved by members, the union said UC would gradually raise the lowest-paid workers to an hourly wage of $30.10 by 2029. They currently make $25 per hour under raises UC instituted last year. The tentative agreement would also give workers a one-time $1,500 payment, cap healthcare premium increases, put limitations on layoffs, expand leave and break abilities, add new holidays where workers get premium pay, and place caps on parking increases and other workplace costs.<\/p>\n
AFSCME Local 3299 President Michael Avant hailed the agreement. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt means UC\u2019s most vulnerable workers will no longer have to choose between paying for healthcare and paying for groceries,\u201d said Avant, who works as a patient transporter at UC San Diego Medical Center. \u201cThis process took persistence and involved great sacrifices by every single one of our members. The tentative agreements we\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement, UC Associate Vice President for Systemwide Employee and Labor Relations Missy Matella said the deal \u201crecognizes the important work these employees do every day across UC\u2019s campuses and health centers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis contract delivers meaningful pay increases and addresses some of the real affordability pressures our employees are facing, while allowing us to move forward together focused on UC\u2019s mission of patient care, teaching and research,\u201d Matella said.<\/p>\n
The tentative agreement culminates more than two years of contract negotiations and several one-day and multi-day strikes. Members are scheduled to vote on it May 19 thorugh 21. If approved, it would be effective through November 2029.<\/p>\n
A major issue that had divided the university and union was California\u2019s high housing costs. Union leaders said some members were sleeping in their cars to be close to work, falling behind on rent and taking on longer commutes after moving farther away because they could not afford housing near campuses, particularly in Los Angeles and the Bay Area.<\/p>\n
Prior to the tentative deal, the union had demanded to open talks with UC over how the university could help alleviate housing pains. The union contrasted member struggles with the residences UC offers to chancellors and below-market-rate mortgages available to certain faculty and executives<\/p>\n
The union and UC did not indicate Thursday that the tentative agreement included housing benefits or a pact to bargain over the issue.<\/p>\n
The threatened walkouts came after the AFSCME filed two unfair labor practice complaints with the state\u2019s Public Employment Relations Board. One accused UC of refusing to bargain over the union\u2019s housing demand. The other accused UC of imposing \u201cunilateral changes to the terms and conditions of employment,\u201d such as through a July action that raised employees to $25 per hour or gave them a 5% wage increase \u2014 whichever was higher \u2014 after the university issued its \u201clast, best and final offer\u201d during stalling negotiations.<\/p>\n
Unions often drop unfair labor practices as part of contract agreements. AFSCME did not indicate Thursday whether it was doing so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A strike that would have disrupted operations affecting thousands of University of California hospital patients and students was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[132149,29524,132150,2791,4017,6709,132151,31116,132147,48,52,51,7036,47,50,49,86,132148,84182,5247,41231],"class_list":["post-315628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-academic-health-center","tag-afscme","tag-afscme-union-patient-care","tag-campus","tag-contract","tag-deal","tag-hall-food-service-staff","tag-healthcare-cost","tag-hospital-worker","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-last-year","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-strike","tag-systemwide-employee","tag-tentative-agreement","tag-uc","tag-union-member"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}