Nearly 40,000 University of California workers are on two-day strike to demand fair labor practices

UC SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — At UC Santa Barbara over 600 workers showed up this morning to make their presence known and their absence felt, chanting “When we fight, we win.” 

This comes weeks after AFSCME Local 3299 filed formal charges with the state’s Public Employment Relations Board alleging the university has engaged in illegal bad faith bargaining. 

“People can have a pay raise. But if it's not keeping up with the cost of living, if their real bargaining power is not keeping up with what they need, then that's going to contribute to these this turnover, to this high vacancy rate. And again, that's going to impact the quality of services that students and staff are getting,” said AFSCME Spokesman Mark McCullogh.

Workers are advocating for better pay, healthcare, and staffing for the university's service and patient care workers.
 
And they’re drumming up support from all over.

UCSB English and Global Studies Professor, Bishnu Priya Ghosh, says a major lesson she teaches her students is how interconnected and interdependent we all are.

“There is no university without the faculty or the staff, including the janitorial staff. Our garbage gets cleared, things get cleaned up, things are put back in order. You invite a speaker to speak. Oh, great. It brings prestige to university. Who's putting the chairs together?” said Ghosh.

Rosalva Alcala has been commuting from Oxnard to UCSB for the past 5 years to work as a senior custodian. She says the drive coupled with the rising cost of goods and physically demanding labor is taking a huge toll on her and her family.

“You do have to be moving and lifting and, and bending and, um, cleaning pretty much the whole facility,” said Alcala.

Last year, the UC CFO said the university’s staff vacancy rate had tripled since before the pandemic. 
 
“When their jobs are better paid, have better health care, that means they're well-staffed. So that means my building that I work in is safe because the maintenance engineers are able to be there and aren't working overtime and aren't being asked to do things way outside their job description. So everyone is safer and healthier, if AFSCME LOCAL 3299 gets what they deserve,” said Karen Rice from Teamsters Local 2010.  

The University of California calls the strike "premature" and says it has made multiple offers, including average wage increases of 26 percent over 5 years.
 
The workers will resume picketing Thursday morning at 7 AM.
 
And their allies plan to show their support once more.