University of California employee labor group authorizes third strike in last six months
ISLA VISTA, Calif. – On Friday, University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE) -a union representing about 20,000 technical and research workers across the University of California system- announced the authorization of a strike by its members scheduled for April 1 of this year.
According to the labor group, the announcement is a response to the higher education system's unfair labor practices and bargaining practices.
The April 1 strike will be the third time in the last six months that the labor organization has organized a collective action response and UPTE members have worked without a union contract since October of 2024 noted a press release issued Friday about the strike authorization on behalf of the union.
"When we joined UPTE nearly three years ago, we brought concerns to the bargaining table about our students grappling with depression, anxiety, sexual assault, stress, and even thoughts of suicide. They refused to engage with us then, and now that we’ve joined statewide negotiations with other UPTE members, we see the same pattern of bad faith," said Marlene Vasquez, a Behavioral Health Counselor at UC Davis. "Delays in care often lead to hospitalization or even worse for some of our most underserved students—so why is UC dragging its feet and further delaying negotiations?"
According to UPTE, more than 65 percent of Counseling and Psychological Services counselors have worked less than five years and -for seven of ten campuses in the UC system- vacancy rates in 2023 were between 19 percent and 37 percent.
That vacancy claim is based on data from 2023 because UPTE noted in Friday's press release that the UC system has not shared vacancy rates by job classification for over two years, something the labor group is legally entitled to.
"We need real leadership at UC. It’s time for the University to get its priorities straight for our patients, our students, and the communities who rely on our important research. As a cancer researcher, I know first-hand how real the stakes are," said Chevelle Sleaford, a Clinical Research Coordinator at UCLA. "It seems everyone recognizes the problem except when it's brought up by frontline workers proposing common-sense solutions."
Earlier this week, the President of the University of California system, Michael Drake, announced a system-wide hiring freeze that surprised local students and requested all ten campuses, "implement cost-saving measures, such as delaying maintenance and reducing business travel where possible".
During a California Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 3 on Education Finance meeting in February of this year, President Drake stated, "We [the UC system] have thousands of vacant positions that we continue to roll vacant year after year and use that funding to be able to support the gaps that we have. The Chancellor mentioned that we have cost pressures. We have a large workforce."
Here in Santa Barbara County, UC Santa Barbara employs more than 10,000 people, the single largest employer in the County.
A UCSB spokesperson issued the following statement in response to Your News Channel's inquiries after the hiring freeze decision: "The campus has been planning for the possibility of changes in funding support at the state and the federal levels. We are in the process of reviewing how to best address these changes, which includes implementing President Drake’s announcement."
The newest unfair labor practice levied against the UC system by UPTE is a claim that recently organized workers are entering separate negotiations that the labor group argues is an illegal 'divide and conquer' strategy that undermines collective bargaining and that work usually performed by union members is being placed under the requirements of non-union job titles as a deliberate union-busting technique.
According to UPTE, the number of senior executive positions -including CEOs, managers, supervisors, and "high-level administrators"- grew by 42.5 percent while the number of front-line professional and support staff increased by 18.6 percent between October 2018 and 2023.
"UC’s approach of divide-and-conquer and delays in bargaining are an affront to the workers who care for our state’s sick, teach the next generation of students, and push the boundaries of medical and scientific research," argued UPTE President and Chief Negotiator Dan Russell. "Public education, healthcare, and research are under threat from the federal government. UC leadership needs to ask itself if they want to side with the billionaires trying to dismantle public healthcare, research, and education, or the frontline workers who are fighting to protect our services and the people who depend on them."
The UPTE represents about 19,200 employees within the UC system and negotiated a collective bargaining agreement on behalf of the Healthcare Professionals bargaining unit which expired on Sep. 30, 2024, and a collective bargaining agreement for Technical and Research bargaining units which expired on Oct. 31, 2024.
Your News Channel has reached out to the University of California system and UC Santa Barbara for comment on the latest strike authorization and those responses will be included in this article when they are received.
