The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 3299, a union that represents approximately 20,000 workers statewide, announced that it will begin its five-day strike today.
The decision comes in spite of a temporary restraining order issued by the Superior Court of San Francisco, and affects 8,500 UC service workers at 10 campuses.
Lakesha Harrison, the president of AFSCME Local 3299, said the union’s right to strike is guaranteed by the Constitution.
“It’s our right to go. … It’s our right to strike. It’s illegal for them to prevent people from exercising their constitutional right,” Harrison said.
“We have to protect the workers.”
But Nicole Savickas, a coordinator for human resources and labor relations at the University of California Office of the President, said that the UC’s chief complaint was that the union was vague about a potential strike before announcing the strike on Thursday.
“We had just received notice. … They had committed to giving us 10 days,” Savickas said.
She added that the union’s encouragement of patient-care employees’ participation posed a serious threat to UC patient care.
Judge Patrick Mahoney ruled in the UC’s favor, stating in his ruling that the union was prohibited from “calling, engaging in, continuing, sanctioning, inducing, aiding, enticing, encouraging, abetting or assisting” a strike without adequate notice.
Harrison said that though the union will comply with the court’s ruling by providing the UC with dates and times of the strike, the temporary restraining order will not prevent AFSCME from striking.
She added that the union would strike because the UC had failed to meet the basic compensation demands that the union had spent over one year fighting for.
“Our workers are in poverty ““ 96 percent of our workforce is eligible for public assistance,” Harrison said.
Harrison said that demands were simple ““ all that the union requested from the UC were competitive wages that can lift their workers out of poverty.
“We can’t handle it anymore. … They are not offering us across-the-board increases,” Harrison said.
“They are not offering us automatic moves in the step system. … They are not offering us the basic things that we need.”
She added that AFSCME demanded a $15 minimum wage and a step-system to make their pay equal to other institutions such as community colleges.
But Savickas said that the UC had been trying to work with the union to offer more competitive pay packages.
Savickas said that among the latest proposals offered was a minimum wage increase of 26 percent over the next five years for patient care employees and increases in minimum hourly rates for service employees from $10.28 to $11.50 or $12.
Howard Pripas, the executive director of labor relations at UC, said in a statement that he hopes that the issues can be resolved at the bargaining table.
“We believe our proposals are fair and responsive to many of AFSCME’s expressed concerns, and we urge the union to resolve these negotiations,” Pripas said in a statement.
“We regret having to take legal action, but we have an obligation to protect our patients, our students, and the communities that rely on UC for vital services.”
Harrison said that the strike will only affect service workers.