On November 20, 2024, at 12:00 A.M., the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees(AFSCME) Local 3299, a union which represents over 37,000 UC service workers, patient care technical workers, and skilled craft workers, began an Unfair Labor Practices(ULP) strike across all UC campuses. The strike is set to end November 21, at 11:59 P.M.
AFSCME Local 3299 began striking due to “UC’s unlawful and unfair labor practices,” as outlined on their website. The practices include “showing up to negotiations without any authority to forge compromises,” and “announcing that [UC] will bypass bargaining altogether to impose higher healthcare costs on workers.”
AFSCME Local 3299 filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge against the University with the State of California Public Employment Relations Board(PERP) on October 10, 2024. In the ULP charge, AFSCME Local 3299 also charges that the University announced an unlawful increase in employee healthcare benefits, intending to increase premiums by 9-11% and co-pays for outpatient visits and prescription drugs by 50%. It also adds a “co-insurance” requirement which requires that employees pay 30% of the cost of specialty drugs. Specialty drugs are typically extremely expensive drugs that are often used to treat chronic conditions such as diabetes, cancer, arthritis, and hepatitis. They are largely administered by specialists in facilities rather than taken at home, according to the Iowa Department of Administrative Services.
Those represented by local 3299 have been hit hard by the rising cost of health care. According to a union report, the number of service and patient care workers who are eligible for federal housing vouchers has almost tripled to 9,400 employees since 2017. According to the LA Times, this increase “encompasses all workers at UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz and 76% at UC San Diego.” To qualify for federal housing vouchers, an individual must generally make less than 50% of the median income of the county a person chooses to live in, according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The median income of individuals in San Diego County in 2022 was $42,300 according to Google’s DataCommons, and the median household income in 2024 was $103,674 according to the United States Census Bureau.
According to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation(ASPE), the principal advisory group for the U.S. Department of Health, the federal poverty line in 2024 is $15,060 for one person, $20,440 for a family of three, and $25,820 for a family of four, meaning an individual making half of the median income of San Diego County is just over $5,000 above the poverty line. According to San Diego County, just over 10% of San Diego county families live below the poverty line.
On November 7, 2023, the University released a statement regarding the rising costs of healthcare for union-represented employees saying, “Health care costs are rising nationally, and the University of California is not immune. These increases are consistent with other public employers in California.” The stated insurance rate increase was 10.79%
The University also stated that the increase is reflected in other, non-UC healthcare insurance providers, such as CalPERS, the nation’s largest pension fund which provides benefits to retired people, and announced a 9.08% increase in non-medicare health insurance plans.
According to the University, the UC health plan “pays an average 85 percent of medical coverage cost for a single employee ($21,000 per year in 2025) and over 80 percent of the cost of coverage for a family. For employees making less than $71,000, UC pays 91 percent of the cost of coverage.”
In response to Local 3299’s decision to strike, the University filed an unfair practice charge against the union, stating that, “While AFSCME and UPTE (University Professional and Technical Employees) represent a significant number of UC employees—32,800 and 18,224 members respectively—it’s important to note that these figures do not necessarily indicate support for a strike or participation. Some communications have inaccurately presented numbers that overstate support or participation levels,” according to the Daily Californian.
Both Local 3299’s PERP, and the University’s Unfair Practice Charge are pending hearings, and the strike occurred as planned.
Tate McFadden is Managing Editor, and a Staff Writer for The Triton