University of California Union Workers Hold One-Day Strike Across State Campuses

Thousands of workers went on strike in response to what they consider unfair labor practices.

A union member addresses the crowd during a strike outside the entrance of UC Santa Cruz on April 1, 2025. Conner Lee/The Epoch Times

Thousands of union workers went on a one-day strike across all University of California (UC) campuses and medical centers on April 1, in response to what they consider unfair labor practices.

“We don’t want to be out here. We don’t want to be missing work. We want to be doing our work,” Amelia Cutten, a behavioral health counselor at UC Santa Cruz and union representative for health care workers at the school, told The Epoch Times. “We’re really out here for our patients, for our students, for the research, just blowing the whistle on the staffing crisis and requesting that UC come back and meaningfully bargain in a way to address the issues that we’ve raised.”

University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE), which represents more than 20,000 technical, research, and health care professionals, filed an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charge against UC in October 2024. The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the UC’s largest employee union, joined the strike in solidarity with UPTE.

Cutten, who is also a member of the UPTE bargaining team, said that workers are experiencing burnout as well as recruitment and retention issues. She pointed to UC CFO Nathan Brostrom’s statement at a 2023 Board of Regents meeting that vacancy rates were three times higher than they were pre-pandemic.

Cutten said the ongoing construction on campus and the recent raise for all UC chancellors averaging 30 percent represent misplaced priorities and an increase to the challenges workers are already facing.

UC stated that UPTE did not show up for a final bargaining session that was set to take place in December 2024. UPTE declared an impasse shortly afterward, declaring that discussions had broken down, without responding to several proposals that UC had offered prior to December, the university added. The proposals included increased wages and step progressions over the contract totaling 16 percent, UC stated.

According to a UC statement from February, the resolution of the contracts being negotiated depends on the unions’ willingness to engage in productive bargaining.

“The University will do everything possible to ensure strike impacts on patients, students, faculty and staff are mitigated,” the university stated.

UC stated on the day of the strike that neither union has been forthright in its characterizations and that the university has made sincere efforts to find solutions. It expressed the hope that the unions will make meaningful attempts to settle the contracts soon.

Janet Mucino, a senior custodian at UC Santa Cruz and a member of the AFSCME board, told The Epoch Times that the proposed 5 percent wage increase from UC is not acceptable in light of the cost of living in Santa Cruz.

The city’s Cost of Living Index indicates that expenses can be more than double the national average. As of February 2025, the average rent for an apartment in Santa Cruz is just over $3,500 a month and the median home price is $1.4 million. Gas prices are just over $5 per gallon.

Mucino suffers from chronic illness, and she struggles to keep up with rising copayments and medication costs for her and her son. She runs a house-cleaning business in addition to her job at the university.

“I have coworkers who have three jobs just to pay rent, just to survive,” she said. “We are frontliners; we deserve to be treated as humans.”

Union workers cross the street during a strike outside the entrance of UC Santa Cruz on April 1, 2025. Conner Lee/The Epoch Times

The UC Office of the President said in an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, “Filing a ULP does not mean there has been a finding of wrongdoing by the university.”

UC disagrees with the claims made by the striking workers.

The university disagrees with UPTE’s claim that there is a staffing crisis. According to data that UC states is publicly available and has been shared with UPTE, the headcount of workers represented by the union has increased, separation rates are declining, and turnover rates are below the national average.

The third-party review process could take months to complete.