Nurses working in the University of California (UC) system will go on a sympathy strike later this month in solidarity with other health care workers protesting against UC. 

The California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU) announced Thursday that they will walk the picket lines to support members of AFSCME 3299, which represents custodians, food service workers and UC Service and Patient Care Technical workers, and UPTE-CWA 9119, which represents healthcare research and technical professionals.  

“Union registered nurses who work at the University of California system stand united against any attempts by our employer to cut corners and deprive our coworkers of fair contracts,” Maureen Dugan, a nurse at UCSF Parnassus and member of CNA’s Board of Directors, said in a statement. “UPTE and AFSCME members are an integral part of making the UC a world-class institution for education, research, and health care. The UC Regents’ continued failure to treat these employees with respect and fairness represents a shameful race to the bottom for the UC and a betrayal of the patients, students, and the public who deserve world-class support.” 

Why It Matters 

AFSCME 3299 and UPTE-CWA 9119 are hoping to get a contract that will address the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis in their fields at UC.  

In a statement, AFSCME 3299 said its members have been working without contracts for more than a year and going on strike is to demonstrate the growing affordability crisis facing UC employees. The union said its members have been priced out of local housing markets by wage rates that fail to keep up with inflation, which is forcing many to leave their jobs.  

Liz Perlman, the executive director of AFSCME Local 3299, said many union members are sleeping in their cars, on SNAP benefits and are one paycheck away from being evicted. Affordability issues have forced 13,000 members to leave, which impacts patient care.

“The University of California is the number one public university in the world and has the best health care in California, but at the same time, the university locations are in the most expensive housing markets in the country,” she told Newsweek in an interview. “That might work for the Nobel Prize winning faculty and the world class doctors who can afford to live close to work, but it does not work for the nursing aides, the cooks, the custodians, who are also as important to the quality of care and to the safety and and support of students coming to campuses.”

This strike will impact operations at several UC locations across California, as tens of thousands of health care workers are expected to be on the picket lines. There will be more than 65,000 employees from AFSCME and more than 80,000 employees from UPTE on strike. CNA represents more than 25,00 nurses across 19 UC facilities.  

Nurses at the University of Southern California (USC) Keck Hospital and Norris Cancer Center also held a strike last month over a lack of resources and staffing gaps that resulted in missed meal and rest breaks.  

What To Know 

The two-day strike is planned for Monday, November 17 and Tuesday, November 18. There will be demonstrations from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. PT at multiple UC locations, including: 

UC Davis and UC Davis Medical Center UC Irvine and UC Irvine Medical Campus UCSD and UCDS Hillcrest Medical Center UCSD La Jolla Medical Center UCLA, UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center and UCLA Santa Monica Hospital  UCSF Medical Center Parnassus UCSF Medical Center Mission Bay UCSF Medical Center BCHO 

Amy Fletcher is a researcher at UC Davis and part of the UPTE bargaining team. She told Newsweek in an interview that the solidarity between the three unions demonstrates that they are all dealing with similar issues in their bargaining processes with UC.

“It is a symptom, not a bug, of engaging with the University of California,” she said. “It shows that the univeristy is failing to engage with any of its big unions in a prodictive manner. And it’s really disappointing to see a public institution behave this way, one that has a public serving mission, and is in a state that prides itself as on [respecting] workers and labor rights. So I think it’s a really powerful message and it speaks to the systemic nature of the issue.”

This continued demonstration of solidarity comes as the Trump administration has threatened to pull federal resources from the UC system. In September, labor unions, including CNA, AFSCME 3299 and UPTE-CWA, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration and its plan to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding to UC over its ideological disagreements. 

The University of California said in a statement that this joint strike is an attempt to pressure the university into accepting “unreasonable wage and benefit demands” that would “put UC in a financially precarious position and jeopardize its mission of teaching, research and public service.”

It adds that UC has been bargaining in good faith for several months with the unions and has offered competitive proposals that in significant wage increases, enhanced health care subsidies and improved benefits.

“UC has consistently shown up ready to negotiate, compromise, and implement real improvements that reflect our genuine value for our employees,” the university said. “Despite these efforts, union leaders have refused to engage constructively and have chosen disruptive strike activity that will not move negotiations forward.” 

Negotiations have been ongoing between UC and UPTE for 17 months and between UC and AFSCME for 21 months.

For AFSCME, the message from the university during negotiations has been “take it or leave it,” Perman said, which amounts to perpetual pay cuts and forces employees to choose between medication and food. She said the union is hoping to get more pay and find baseline solutions to the housing crisis in cities with UC locations.

Amy Fletcher adds that the UPTE has not seen meaningful engagement from UC, meaning they are not getting answers on why their proposals are unacceptable or how they can meet in the middle.

“We understand that UC isn’t going to agree to everything, but some of the proposals we’ve made are cost neutral to them,” she said, like reclassification to address career advancement and increasing the unpaid parental leave. “It’s hard to understand what justification there is to turn down things that are cost neutral to the university but would hugely benefit our members, and by extension, the university itself.”

What Happens Next 

The UC system said it will remain open amid any disruptions from the strikes and that it is committed to reaching fair agreements that “reward employees and sustain its mission.” 

Union leaders said there is no upcoming bargaining session schedule. The strike will take place in two weeks, on November 17 and 18.

What People Are Saying 

The University of California said in a statement about the UPTE decision to strike: “This strike is both unnecessary and irresponsible, particularly after UC made every effort over 17 months of bargaining and three weeks of intensive mediation to reach a fair and competitive agreement. UC remains committed to reaching a balanced, sustainable contract that rewards employees while preserving the University’s ability to deliver on its mission of teaching, research, and public service. The University urges UPTE’s leaders to return to the bargaining table and engage constructively — not to stage costly and disruptive demonstrations.” 

Amy Fletcher, a researcher at UC Davis and member of UPTE, said in an interview with Newsweek: “Even though people that are seeing this might not work for the University of California, the UPTE workers, and UC in particular, impacts every Californian, and frankly, people all over the world. We have researchers into things like pediatric cancer treatments, and we had researchers that worked on like the covid vaccine. We provide cutting edge healthcare. People travel here to California to get top of the line healthcare, and we obviously provide a world class education. So even if you are not one of our 80,000 workers, these issues really do impact you in a myriad of ways.”

AFSCME Local 3299 Exective Director Liz Perlman said in an interview with Newsweek: “We’re worth what we’re asking for, because we need it. We need this, and our families deserve to have a roof over our head. You know, our kids do better in school. They’re more likely to graduate high school if we have one house. These are studies that you see done itself. If UC is the engine of economic mobility it prides itseld on with record numbers of first-generation kids going to college, those are our kids. Help up get them to UC.

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