A planned five-day labor strike planned for next week at the University of California medical centers across the state appears to be put on hold, as service workers and the health system have reached a tentative agreement, it was announced Feb. 27.
Members of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299 must ratify the agreement. Once formally approved, the five-day strike – planned for March 3 through 7 – would officially be canceled.
The tentative four-year agreement would cover the University of California health system’s 8,300 service workers, including those at Ronald Reagan-UCLA Medical Center in Westwood and UCLA-Santa Monica Medical Center in Santa Monica.
Terms of the deal include a 13.5 percent wage increase – spread out over four years – for service workers, affordable healthcare benefits for current employees and retirees, and “safe staffing” protections.
“After more than a year of good faith bargaining, we have finally reached a historic agreement with UC that will pull thousands of its full-time employees out of poverty and begin to rectify staffing practices that needlessly put our members and the people they serve at risk,” University of California Service Worker and AFSCME 3299 president Kathryn Lybarger stated.
According to AFSCME Local 3299, the four-year agreement only covers the University of California service workers. The 13,000 patient care technical workers at the statewide health system who are represented by the labor union are still bargaining with the University of California.
