UC ends long-running labor dispute, reaches tentative deal with 19,000 health care workers
The bargaining team for roughly 17,000 patient care technical workers reached a tentative contract agreement with the University of California, ending one of the institution’s longest-running contract disputes, according to a news release issued Tuesday by Local 3299 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
“After nearly three years without a contract, AFSCME represented UC Service and Patient Care workers have now each succeeded in reaching agreements that strengthen middle class career pathways at UC and create enforceable reforms to staffing practices that have been entirely incompatible with UC’s core public mission,” said AFSCME 3299 President Kathryn Lybarger. “This victory is a testament to our members’ commitment to their families, to each other, and to the students and patients we are proud to serve each day.”
Local 3299 announced a week ago that it had reached a tentative contract deal for 8,000 service workers it represents at the university’s 10 campuses, five medical centers and three affiliated national laboratories.
UC Board of Regents Chair John A. Pérez said: “These tentative contracts, achieved through the hard work and good faith efforts of the AFSCME and UC negotiating teams, reflect how critically important UC employees are to meeting our mission. These agreements provide hardworking UC employees with the benefits and protections they deserve, and it moves UC closer to being the kind of employer we need to be.”
The four-year proposal for contract workers calls for a one-time across-the-board wage increase of 6 percent, plus one experience-based increase, upon contract ratification.
In terms of annual increases, patient care technical workers will receive 3 percent across-the-board raises in years 2021-24 and annual 2 percent experience-based increases in years 2020-24. The contract notes that UC, Los Angeles, and UC, San Francisco will run local experience-based increase programs pf their own.
Eligible full-time workers will receive a one-time payment of $3,000 upon contract ratification, and eligible part-time employees will get a pro-rated portion of that payment. In 2021, they will get a second one-time payment of $1,000. Per diem and limited workers will get a one-time $500 payment if they worked at least 400 hours in calendar year 2019 when the contract is ratified.
Beginning in July 2020, employees who achieve 20 years of service over the life of this contract will receive a one-time payment of $1,000.
The four-year proposal for service workers also promises annual wage increases of 3 percent from 2020-24, and upon contract ratification, they will get a 3 percent bump. It also calls for a number of experience-based wage increases, $2500 upon contract ratification, and others for 2 percent that will be paid out annually from 2020-2024.
Eligible, full-time members of AFSCME’s service unit also will receive $1,500 in 2021, and pro-rated portions of this payment will be made to eligible part-time employees. The service worker contract also calls for the same one-time payments for newly minted 20 years veterans, per diem and limited employees as in the patient care workers’ contract..
New employees in the AFSCME units will get the same pension benefits as current workers, UC leaders noted in the statement.
AFSCME mounted a half-dozen intermittent strikes since it began negotiations in 2017 aimed at getting the UC to change outsourcing practices that increased the number of contract workers at the expense of hiring full-time UC employees. Lybarger said the UC Board of Regents had proposed changes to outsourcing policies, and those proposals have been incorporated into the new contract proposal.
The set enforceable limits on outsourcing, offer UC career paths for current contract workers and ensurers greater transparency on contracting practices.
“This has been a long and hard process that required both sides to seek common ground and work in good faith,” Lybarger said. “But it has brought important issues to light about the growing problem of income inequality, the fight for what’s left of America’s middle class and how large public institutions can uplift the communities they serve. It is our hope that the history we’ve made today can begin a new era of constructive dialogue between the university and its dedicated career workforce.”
The union said that service workers would vote on ratifying their contract on Thursday and patient care workers would vote Feb. 4 and Feb. 6. If ratified, the UC stated, the patient care contracts would be in effect until July 2024 and the service workers contract until October 2024.
This story was originally published January 28, 2020 at 1:29 PM with the headline "UC ends long-running labor dispute, reaches tentative deal with 19,000 health care workers."
