40,000 University Of California Hospital Workers In Two-Day Strike
San Diego — As 40,000 AFSCME Local 3299 workers throughout the ten-campus University of California system launched a two-day strike on Nov. 17, two Communist Party members—Alvin, an AFSCME-represented employee at University of California at San Diego (UCSD), and another worker, an AFSCME retiree from UC San Francisco—shared their thoughts before they prepared to picket.
Pay, or lack of it, is the big issue. But so is disparate treatment on a class basis.
While the university system fails to settle contracts addressing the cost of living and affordability crises facing its most economically vulnerable patient care workers, it’s also handed out six-figure salaries and housing subsidies to multiple high administrators.