We show up rain or shine: Nov. 17 AFSCME Local 3299 strike update

An estimated over 40,000 University of California employees are on strike with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 from Monday, Nov. 17 to Tuesday, Nov. 18 for a fair contract.

AFSCME Local 3299 workers include those in dining hall service who feed UCLA students from 7:00 a.m. in the morning to late night at 12 a.m., the custodians who keep UCLA campus and dorms clean and the patient care assistants and hospital technicians who heal the community. Consider the hours of labor and care that these frontline workers do to keep UCLA operating: standing for hours to cook and plate meals for students, reaching and bending every shift to clean tough spots in dorm bathrooms and tending attentively to the needs of patients. AFSCME Local 3299 run UCLA — and they’re still fighting for a fair contract after over a year of negotiations.

The union is on strike statewide because the UC fails to address the housing affordability crisis among UC workers. UCLA workers report how the housing affordability crisis impacts every aspect of their work day. First, hour-long commutes force them to sleep in their cars without affordable housing near campus. Then, workers complete the jobs of multiple employees due to understaffing. Last, the current wages render them unable to pay for basic needs and bills. The housing affordability crisis is a vicious cycle. AFSCME Local 3299 also reported in 2023 that 95% of its service worker members were unable to afford single-bedroom housing near work. The UC expects workers to pay for their families, while at the same time the UC underpays and overworks them to the point where they sleep in their cars rather than eat on their lunch breaks to get home safely. Ultimately, AFSCME Local 3299 demands the UC address the housing affordability crisis by providing its workers with livable wages, housing benefits, affordable healthcare and job security.

On Monday, Nov. 17, delivery pickets began at 6:15 a.m., with students and workers asking delivery drivers to turn away in solidarity with the strike. At around 8:00 a.m., workers and students rallied and marched around UCLA campus.

A student-worker town hall hosted by Unión Centroamericana at UCLA and Student Labor Advocacy Project focused on student and worker solidarity. It began at 9:30 a.m. at the stage in Bruin Plaza. Speakers asked the community how they felt about ICE entering the Ronald Reagan Medical Center and the UC board of regents raising tuition for undergraduate students. The community responded with shouts of “shame” and boos. A student shared their experience of the current tuition cost pushing them out of stable housing and said, “Why should I have to sacrifice my housing to take my classes?” It is clear students and workers share similar, if not the same struggle when the UC refuses to meet our demands for livable learning and working conditions.

The speakers also asked the community, “What would a fair contract mean to you?” Workers responded that the UC must provide better pay, address housing affordability and not raise healthcare minimums.

Students and workers began another picket line at 9:45 a.m., and continued picketing throughout the rest of Monday. It began raining around 11:00 a.m. Yet students and workers held the line together in their struggle toward fair negotiations with the UC. Students continued tabling alongside AFSCME Local 3299 workers with their umbrellas, and AFSCME Local 3299 workers continued picketing side-by-side with students in their coats. Despite the chill and downpour of the rain, students and workers stuck together. AFSCME Local 3299 proved they will show up rain or shine until their demands are met. Students established their solidarity, because our struggle for fair learning and working conditions, housing affordability and livable wages is shared — when workers’ needs are met, our student needs are met.