SANTA CRUZ — Bus drivers, food service and patient care workers with AFSCME Local 3299 at UC Santa Cruz and across the University of California’s campuses went on strike Wednesday — an action that was approved by 99% of its nearly 40,000 employees.
At the base of campus Wednesday, hundreds of union members picketed across High Street and Coolidge Drive such as 23-year UCSC employee Janet Mucino.
“We’re here because the university is breaking the law,” said Mucino. “They come to the bargaining table without preparing and without authority. And in addition to that, they’ve increased the cost of our health insurance, which has a huge impact on our lives.”
In October, the union filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge against the UC for “illegally sidestepped bargaining to unilaterally increase healthcare costs by hundreds of dollars every month, refused to provide critical staff vacancy and financial information needed for constructive negotiations, and detailed a pattern of UC representatives repeatedly coming to bargaining sessions unprepared and without authority to negotiate.”
Mucino, a mother of four and a cancer survivor explained that she also works as a house cleaner on the side, in addition to her full-time job as a custodian at the university.
“I am already paying $680 for my health insurance a month through the university,” said Mucino. “And they are planning on increasing that to almost $800. Inflation is going up and rents are going up and now my health insurance is going up. This affects our lives and it’s hard. They don’t see how we struggle and we work so hard.”
“We work here because we love the job,” she added. “We run UC but they don’t give us what we deserve. And they pushed us, and broke the law, so we didn’t have any other option but to strike.”
AFSCME Local 3299 and the University of California have been working toward its latest contract for almost a year. The union’s existing contract with the university for patient care workers expired July 31, and the contract for service workers expired at the end of October.
In its statement about the strike, made earlier in November, the University of California stated, “We remain willing and open to meeting with AFSCME to negotiate the terms of their contract, and we are hopeful of a quick resolution.”
Many union members picketing at the base of campus have decades of experience at the university such as bus driver Kevin Parks, who has been a driver at UCSC for 25 years.
“The university has failed to send people to the negotiating table with authority, not given us the information we need to bargain a new contract and unilaterally raised our health care cost, so it’s a hardship on the union members including myself,” said Park. “This is my only job and it’s difficult to live here. I commute an hour to get here.”
Parks mentioned that it was heartening to see union members gathered at the base of campus alongside university students. Although the union members are generally not students, numerous UCSC students were gathered at the picket line in solidarity with the members of AFSCME Local 3299, such as third-year student Ren Luevano.
“A win for any one person or group of people is a win for everybody and I have a meal plan so why wouldn’t I support the people making my food,” said Luevano. “I think they should be able to feed their families too.”
Many of the union members mentioned that they have been priced out of Santa Cruz and, like Park, commute long distances to work at UCSC like food service worker Renny Reyes, who grew up in Santa Cruz but now lives and drives in from San Jose.
“Some days I am away from my family for 12 or 14 hours, so everyone out here is like my family,” said Reyes. “And being out here today feels like I am gathered with my family.”
The two-day strike will continue until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday.
“The university’s serial lawbreaking at the bargaining table means that the epidemic of understaffing at UC facilities, and the related cost of living and housing affordability crises plaguing frontline UC workers are only getting worse,” said AFSCME Local 3299 President Michael Avant in a statement. “By failing to meet its most basic legal responsibilities to the dedicated professionals who clean its facilities, serve students food and treat its patients, UC has left workers with no choice but to exercise their legal right to strike.”