UCSB health care workers join 3-day strike
Health care workers at the University of California, including UC Santa Barbara went on strike Tuesday protesting what they call, ‘an alarming pattern of inequity.’
A main complaint during th 3-day strike organized by Patient Care Technical workers represented by AFSCME Local 3299 focuses on the UC system’s practice of outsourcing jobs to companies that pay workers less and offer little to no benefits.
According to organizers of the strike, the UC system imposed new employment terms on the workers that risk more outsourcing while flattening wages, raises health care premiums, and a lifted retirement age.
At least three dozen strikers were seen holding signs on UCSB’s campus Tuesday morning
AFSCME leaders have taken steps to ensure that the public’s health and safety remain a top priority for striking workers, organizers said in a statement.
UCLA, UC San Diego and UC Davis are also among those on strike today.
More than 15,000 University of California radiologists, nurse’s aides and other patient care workers are participating statewide, according to the Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-edu-uc-three-day-strike-20181023-story.html
The strike comes just months after the University’s Service workers staged a 3-day strike in May, which prompted 53,000 UC workers to walk off the job.
Media representatives from the UC President’s office released a statement in reaction to the walkout:
“AFSCME leaders’ organized theatrics and intentional disruptions do nothing to shift the university’s stance on their unreasonable demands. An 8 percent pay increase for each of four years is not possible for a taxpayer-supported institution. The union wants more money — more than any other group at the university. This is why they are striking, plain and simple. UC hopes AFSCME leaders, given their wasted efforts, will now engage in productive, sensible negotiations, rather than blindly declare victory for a demonstration that moved them no closer to a better deal.”
