Natisha Booker, an environmental services employee at the UC Davis Medical Center, led fellow strikers in a chant early on a rainy November morning.
“Who runs UC? We run UC!” she called out.
Booker and other service and patient care employees in the UC system are represented by American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME Local 3299. Members embarked on a two-day strike on Wednesday.
Members of the AFSCME Local 3299 picket outside of the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024.Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio
The union filed an unfair labor practice charge with California’s Public Employment Relations Board accusing the University of California of negotiating in bad faith.
“We just want UC to do what’s right by their members because at the end of the day, when the pandemic hit, we were all heroes to them,” Booker said.
Union representatives say the UC announced unilaterally that it would raise the cost of employee health insurance without bringing it directly to the bargaining table first.
Strike signs appear outside of UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024.Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio
Aaron Metcalf works in patient transport at the UC Davis Medical Center and said he’s concerned about the possibility of increased health insurance costs.
“My children and my wife and the people that I have on my [plan,] it goes up,” Metcalf said. “Without wages going up I can’t afford for healthcare to go up.”
Union members are also concerned about high vacancy rates in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and want to see positions filled.
“We are, right now — specifically in my department — in an unsafe occupancy,” Metcalf said. “I have people in my department that are out on injuries and on light duty because they’re doing the work of two and three people.”
Members of the AFSCME Local 3299 picket outside of the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024.Gerardo Zavala/CapRadio
In a statement, the UC said it fundamentally disagrees with the union’s bad faith characterization of negotiations. The university issued a separate statement regarding ongoing healthcare negotiations, stating “premiums for these employees will be held at 2024 rates until the parties complete negotiations.”
It also said the union stopped responding to UC proposals in May of this year and that it is open to continue negotiations with the union.
UC negotiators also offered a $25 minimum wage to all employees starting in July 2025.
Liam Connolly, a spokesperson for UC Davis Health, said in a statement that the system’s Med Center in Sacramento does not expect the strike to cause disruptions to patient care.
“We expect to provide the same consistently high level of patient care for which we’re known,” Connolly said in a written statement. “Some procedures, which are not urgent or time sensitive, have already been moved before or after these two days. No procedures have been canceled.”
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