One of three big unions planning to strike the University of California on Nov. 17-18 has reached a tentative agreement, leaving more than 60,000 left to continue with plans to picket at 18 campuses and medical facilities statewide.
After 17 months of negotiations, UC and the University Professional and Technical Employees-Communications Workers of America Local 9119, which represents 19,664 healthcare, research and technical professionals, agreed to a tentative deal Nov. 8, according to a UC statement. Bargaining began in June 2024 ahead of the union’s contract expiration on Oct. 31, 2024.
After talks broke down last week, UC said UPTE-CWA approached the federal mediator involved in the negotiations to re-engage with the university.
Also see: 86,000 University of California workers to strike statewide Nov. 17-18
Dan Russell, UPTE-CWA president and chief negotiator, plans to brief the membership on the tentative deal in a video conference meeting with membership on Wednesday, Nov. 12. The agreement provides a roughly 28% pay bump over the next four years, pension contributions, caps on health care premium increases, and improvements to career advancement steps and work-life balance.
Voting on the proposal is scheduled to begin later this week, said Ursula Quinn, a vice president with UPTE-CWA Local 9119 and a co-chair of the bargaining committee at UC Los Angeles. “It’s definitely the largest pay increase in the history of our union,” said Quinn of the 35-year-old union.
UPTE rescinded its strike notice pending a membership ratification vote. “We will definitely be supporting AFSCME and CNA,” Quinn said.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, which represents 37,481 service and patient care technical workers at UC, and California Nurses Association, which represents 23,542 nurses, confirmed that they both will move forward with the strike on Monday — both of which characterized the strike last week as being the largest in UC’s history. The contracts of these two unions also expired last year.
“We press ahead,” said Todd Stenhouse, a spokesman with AFSCME Local 3299, of the UPTE-CWA union cutting a deal in advance of the strike.