LOS ANGELES – Members of AFSCME Local 3299 who work for the University of California (UC) system rallied outside the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC) Wednesday to demand a fair contract. They were joined by delegates to our union’s 46th International Convention, which is being held at the LACC this week.
Local 3299 members want a new collective bargaining agreement that addresses the cost-of-living and housing-affordability crises that are plaguing front-line workers. They have been bargaining with their employer for more than six months.
At the rally, held at the Gilbert Lindsay Plaza outside the LACC, UC workers chanted, “Who runs UC? We run UC!” “When we fight, we win!” and “If we don’t get it, shut it down!”
Monica Martinez, a clinical care partner at the UCLA Medical Center and member of Local 3299, told rally participants, “Today, it’s getting harder and harder for me to live in the community I love, the community I have called home for my entire life, the community where I raised my kids, the community I have fought for every single day of my career.”
“Even when raising my four kids in LA as a single mom, I could keep a roof over all our heads,” Martinez added. “Today, I’m not sure if I can keep a roof over my own head.”
Housing affordability is an issue for workers in Los Angeles and beyond. Yvonne Wheeler, the president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which represents 800,000 workers, also addressed the crowd.
“Today, nearly 1.4 million Angelenos are living in poverty, and 75,000 Angelenos are unhoused in LA County,” she said. “That is unacceptable in a county with some of the wealthiest employers on planet earth — employers like the University of California, which receives millions of our tax dollars every single year.”
Michael Avant, president of Local 3299, said the UC executives with whom the union is negotiating have forgotten what makes the university system great.
“We are the ones who keep the University of California running!” he said. “From its world-class college campuses to the hospital system that saves lives every single day, there’s a reason UC is called ‘the best in the west.’”
The workers’ plight was painted in stark terms by Kathryn Lybarger, executive director of Local 3299. She noted that since 2017, the workers have seen an 8% pay cut while UC executives received a 36% pay increase. Seventy percent of Local 3299 members cannot afford to live near their workplaces and are forced to commute long distances while the university is helping its executives buy second homes.
“We know that UC can do better!” Lybarger said.
AFSCME President Lee Saunders, AFSCME Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride and AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler spoke at the rally and expressed solidarity with the UC workers.
“I’m bringing the voices of 12½ million workers, 60 unions who have your back!” Shuler said.
Saunders recalled that at the 2022 AFSCME convention in Philadelphia, our union rallied to support workers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art who were in a similar situation, having reached an impasse with their employer. The workers went on to win a fair contract.
“You can do the same thing, 3299!” Saunders said. “Because you’re part of a bigger family — that family is called AFSCME and we are here with you 100%”
McBride got the crowd to chant, “Have no fear, AFSCME is here!”
“We are united in this fight because when bosses mess with one of us, they mess with all of us,” she said.
Local 3299 represents more than 33,000 service and patient care technical workers at the UC system’s 10 campuses, five medical centers, numerous clinics, research laboratories and more. The workers joined picket lines and rallies earlier this month after they hit an impasse with UC management over contract negotiations.
Photo: Convention delegates and Local 3299 members formed a sea of AFSCME green on the Gilbert Lindsay Plaza outside the Los Angeles Convention Center as they rallied for a fair contract for University of California workers. Photo by Javeon Butler
