Service workers and patient care staff picketed at UC San Diego’s Jacobs Medical Center on Wednesday. They’re asking for higher wages and housing assistance amid ongoing contract negotiations.
The University of California and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees or AFSCME, which represents more than 30,000 university workers, have been negotiating a new contract since January.
The union said workers are struggling to afford housing, especially near university campuses.
Radiologic technologist Melissa Macario commutes from Chula Vista to La Jolla. She said the university’s wages are no longer competitive in the local market.
“We’ve been struggling for quite some time since the pandemic,” she said.
The union said the university offers home loan programs for faculty and executive staff, but not its service workers.
“They receive low-interest mortgages and down payment assistance that they only give to the executives,” cardiac surgical technologist Stevie Bellwood said. “That needs to be applied to everybody.”
Last year, unions and other organizations urged the University of California to divest from Blackstone, a private equity firm that owns property throughout San Diego. Advocates say the firm is contributing to a lack of affordable housing.
Blackstone and the University of California announced a $4 billion investment in the firm by UC Investments in January 2023.
“We are highly aligned through this investment to further our relationship,” Blackstone President and Chief Operating Officer Jon Gray said at the time.
In a statement, the University of California wrote that this year’s bargaining sessions have been productive.
“We empathize with the challenges our AFSCME-represented employees face, especially California's increasing cost of living,” the university wrote. “Our goal is to acknowledge their growing contributions, appreciate their commitment, and offer a financial package that helps alleviate some of their financial strains.”
The university has proposed raising patient care and service workers’ minimum wage to $24 an hour by April 2025.
Meanwhile, state lawmakers are considering delaying a separate health worker minimum wage law – that would also apply to University of California workers – by a month over concerns about the cost. That law phases in a $25 minimum wage for certain workers over the course of a few years.
