Two-Day UC Strike Unlikely to Sway Bosses
A strike by nurses and other patient care workers at University of California (UC) hospitals and medical centers entered its second and final day Wednesday, despite efforts by the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) to block some employees from participating. UC officials said it would “threaten public health and safety,” the SF Appeal reported this week. The dispute involves over 12,500 employees, who are represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union (AFSCME). Hundreds of members of the University Professional and Technical Employees Union threatened to join in a one-day sympathy strike on Wednesday.
According to AFSCME officials, the PERB injunction only barred around 120 employees from participating. Almost twenty-four of them had already been exempted from striking under the union’s “Patient Protection Task Force,” which allowed them to cross the picket line to help maintain emergency patient care.
UC officials predictably condemned the strike, saying it would cost them $20 million “to ensure