The union representing nearly 40,000 service and technical patient care workers at University of California medical centers and campuses statewide canceled an open-ended strike scheduled to begin early Thursday after 11th hour bargaining produced a tentative agreement.
Members of Local 3299 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees will vote on ratification of the deal on May 19-21, according to a union statement.
Details of the tentative offer were not immediately disclosed by AFSCME and university officials.
“Under the terms agreed upon tonight, the lowest paid workers in the UC system will have won their largest wage increase ever and the most affordable healthcare rates at UC, alongside strong staffing and workplace safety protections,” wrote AFSCME Local 3299 Michael Avant in a statement issued earlier Thursday. “It means UC’s most vulnerable workers will no longer have to choose between paying for healthcare and paying for groceries.”
AFSCME officials said the workers were covered by two labor contracts. One contract, which covered custodians, food service workers, groundskeepers and parking and security personnel, expired Oct. 31, 2024. The other contract, which covered workers in patient care units, including medical assistants, MRI technicians, operating room assistants, respiratory therapists and licensed vocational nurses, expired July 31, 2024.
“We’re glad to have reached an agreement with AFSCME that recognizes the important work these employees do every day across UC’s campuses and health centers,” wrote Missy Matella, associate vice president for systemwide employee and labor relations for the University of California, in a statement. “This contract delivers meaningful pay increases and addresses some of the real affordability pressures our employees are facing, while allowing us to move forward together focused on UC’s mission of patient care, teaching and research.”
The tentative contract agreement provides “generous wage increases and includes health care caps and stipends, ratification bonuses, equity pools to address systemwide and longevity bonuses,” according to the UC statement.
Since bargaining began in January 2024, UC increased its proposal from roughly 25% total pay growth to more than 34% as of May 11, while adding a ratification bonus of up to $2,000 for eligible employees, according to a UC statement released earlier this week. UC said in this statement that it also added longevity payments for long-serving employees and new caps and offsets to manage rising healthcare costs through 2029.
If Thursday’s tentative deal is ratified by AFSCME workers, the contract would pay workers retroactively from 2024 to 2029.
The union stated in a blog post on its website early Thursday that, if ratified, the contract would give permanent employees a one-time bonus of $1,500, total pay growth to about 34%, and increase the union’s minimum wage from $25 in 2025 to $30.10 by April 2029.
A UC spokeswoman could not be reached to confirm the details.
The union previously stated that a top priority in the discussions was to halt UC management’s alleged practice of short-staffing facilities and cutting resources.
The union also had raised concerns about UC spending billions acquiring new facilities and “lavishing exorbitant raises on its wealthiest executives” at the expense of frontline workers, and refusing to bargain over the housing crisis that caused some of its members to “sleep in their cars and in homeless shelters.”
UC previously stated that it is aware of the allegations of some workers living in homeless shelters and sleeping in cars. “We recognize that many employees are facing real pressures related to housing, commuting, and the high cost of living, and those concerns are central to these negotiations,” said a UC spokeswoman in a statement a month ago.