OAKLAND, Calif. — Some 40,000 custodians, cafeteria workers, patient care assistants, hospital technicians, gardeners and others at University of California hospitals and campuses, members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, went on a two-day strike Nov. 17-18 in a fight for higher wages and better working conditions. They’ve been without a contract for over a year.
Workers picketing at the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland told the Militant their wages don’t keep up with rising prices. “The increases in payments they’re asking for medical insurance are huge,” AFSCME staffer Maria Flores said. Because of high rents in San Francisco and Oakland, she said, some workers live in their cars on workdays, only going home on weekends.
Giselle Curi, a medical assistant in a surgical ward, said her main concern is short staffing at the same time many workers face cuts in their hours. “It doesn’t affect us in surgery a lot, but in other departments they try to keep workers part time so they can’t get benefits.”
Nurses in the system, members of the California Nurses Association, were also scheduled to strike in solidarity. But their participation was called off after a tentative agreement was reached by their union on the eve of the strike. Nevertheless, many nurses joined the AFSCME picket lines on their breaks and days off.
Nurses who were on the picket line at the children’s hospital told the Militant they were angry at the top university managers’ refusal to pay decent wages and benefits to the very workers that need it most. They said that the University of California hospitals are run like a business, with too much of the profit going to management.
One cleaner and his friend, both of whom work at a giant University of California hospital complex in San Francisco, joined the picket. The CEO at that complex takes home a gross pay of $1,815,969.
More money needs to go to workers, they said. A union flyer distributed by pickets says U.C. executives have received wage increases averaging 52% since 2016. Wages for front-line workers have fallen by 7% over that time.