Portside

Photo by Erin Huang/ UCSD Guardian

Over 4,000 UC San Diego employees participated in a series of strikes between Feb. 26 to 28 as part of a statewide unfair labor practice strike organized by two labor unions: the University Professional and Technical Employees CWA Local 9119 union and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 3299 union. Across all University of California campuses, over 20,000 healthcare, research, technical, and service professionals participated in the strike.

At UCSD, UPTE-CWA 9119 and AFSCME 3299 both went on strike for two days on Feb. 26 and 27. UPTE-CWA 9119 continued its strike for an additional day at Hillcrest Medical Center on Feb. 28. This follows previous strikes by AFSCME 3299 in November and by both unions in previous years during prior contract negotiations.

UPTE-CWA 9119 represents approximately 20,000 UC employees in healthcare, clinical lab research, and technical positions. AFSCME 3299 represents over 35,000 UC employees in service positions, such as custodial, transportation, and patient care technical workers. 

On both days, strikers marched from Library Walk down Gilman Drive to Jacobs Medical Center. Striking AFSCME 3299 and UPTE-CWA 9119 members held a joint rally at 11 a.m. on Feb. 26, at Jacobs Medical Center. The strikes lasted from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday.

Union members played drums, rang bells, and blew whistles and horns while they chanted, “Who runs UC? We run UC!” “Shut it down!” and “Whose university? Our university!” They toted signs that read, “On Strike! Against Unfair Labor Practices: for our patients, for our research, for our students.”

Negotiations for UPTE-CWA 9119 began in June 2024, while AFSCME 3299 began in January 2024. Both have reached a standstill, leading to this double strike. UPTE-CWA 9119 has brought forth several demands in its proposals, identifying the staffing crisis as its greatest concern, which the UC bargaining team has counter-offered. 

On Feb. 21, the UC Office of the President released a statement regarding the strike. It stated that UPTE-CWA 9119 began strike preparations the same month that contract negotiations began and claimed that the union declared an impasse before responding to the UC bargaining team’s most recent offers. Regarding AFSCME 3299’s bargaining practices, the UC claims that the union has not responded to its proposals since May 2024.  

“The University of California is disappointed that AFSCME and UPTE plan to strike,” the statement read. “Both unions have chosen to focus their energy on strike preparation and amplifying misinformation rather than negotiating in good faith.”

The unions have also accused the UC bargaining team of not bargaining in good faith, filing multiple unfair practice charges with the California Public Employment Relations Board. 

John Sonata, an inpatient physical therapist and UPTE-CWA 9119 member, is striking in hopes that the UC will address the staff retention issue. 

“We have a fairly high turnover rate across UC,” he said. “Over 50% of healthcare employees have worked at the university for less than five years. … It’s a disservice to our patients if we’re constantly having to train new folks.”

UC San Diego Health hospitals are ranked No. 1 in California by U.S. News and regarded as one of the nation’s best hospitals. However, some staff do not feel like maintaining this level of care is sustainable amid claims of staffing issues.

“Our goal is to provide care that is befitting of the No. 1 hospital in San Diego, but in order to do that, we need to address the issues of … staffing and retention issues, and that’s the only way that we’re going to be able to provide top-level care for all of our patients,” Sonata said.

Heather Hansen, UCOP’s communications strategist, claimed that there is no staffing crisis in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Data that we’ve already shared with the union shows that the number of UPTE-CWA 9119-represented headcount is increasing, separations are declining, and turnover is flattening,” Hansen said. “This claim has no truth, and continuing to repeat it does not make it true.”

UPTE-CWA 9119 has been formally requesting vacancy rate data from UCOP since April 12, 2023. In response, UCOP has given them information about headcount, separation, and turnover, but has not released vacancy rate data that would provide specific information about the number of job positions the UC has budgeted for and how many of those positions remain unfilled.

Union members maintain there is a crisis with patient overflow that they can not address due to inadequate staffing and UCOP’s refusal to release vital data about job vacancies. 

Sonata described a crisis of insufficient beds in the emergency department, where he works primarily with geriatric patients. 

“When it’s really busy, oftentimes patients are forced to board in the hallways on gurneys or recliner chairs for days,” he said. “They even had to convert a conference room into a patient overflow area.”

Many workers who interact directly with patients have reported patient overflow issues and prolonged wait times. Union members outside of the healthcare field have also reported similar staffing issues.

Randall Turner, a business technology support analyst and UPTE-CWA 9119 member, described his experience as an information technology professional.

“If [the UC] comes to see, they can look through the ticket system we have for our IT department, and they’ll see there are tickets that are months old,” he said. “They don’t get done because we don’t have enough staff, because [our staff] are prioritizing higher-tier tickets. You ask anybody here, if no one here was short-staffed, they wouldn’t be out here.”

When asked what happens if contract negotiations continue to stall, Turner said he would keep striking until their demands are met.

“Until we get a resolution out of this, we won’t be stopping,” he said. “Today is a three-day strike. We don’t know when the next strike will be, but whenever that happens, we’re going to continue to do this until they come to the table and bargain in good faith with us.”