UC healthcare workers kick off 2-day strike [Video]

About 37,000 University of California patient care and service workers walked off the job at all UC campuses and medical centers across the state.

Members of AFSCME Local 3299, the union representing workers in medical facilities and food service employees, kicked off their two-day strike at midnight on Wednesday.

According to the union, the contract for patient care workers expired on July 31^st while the service workers’ contract expired on October 31st.

Last month, the union filed formal charges with the State’s Public Employment Relations Board, accusing the university of “bad faith bargaining.”

In a press release, union officials claim that the university “announced plans to unilaterally increase employee healthcare costs by hundreds of dollars every month, refused to provide critical staff vacancy and financial information relevant to the bargaining process, and detailed a pattern of UC representatives repeatedly coming to bargaining sessions unprepared and without authority to negotiate.”

Striking employees outside UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center told Jon Baird they want …