AFSCME AND CNA ON STRIKE NOV. 17-18 – FIND A PICKET LINE NEAR YOU, WEAR YOUR UC-AFT GEAR, AND JOIN YOUR COLLEAGUES!
Our colleagues from AFSCME 3299 (representing janitors, food service, transportation, patient care specialists, and skilled craft workers at UC) and CNA (representing registered nurses at UC Health) will be going out on strike Nov. 17 and 18th. The healthcare, laboratory, and research professionals of UPTE have called off their strike after reaching a tentative agreement last week.
Together, these unions represent 50,000 workers at UC, meaning this will be the biggest strike in UC’s history. It promises to be an unprecedented display of solidarity among UC unions and we encourage all UC-AFT members to support their collective action. While most of the picket lines will be focused at UC Health hospitals and facilities, there will be rallies and actions on our campuses as well.
You can and should expect disruptions on your campus. During past strikes we’ve seen transit services get tangled and some campus services impacted. You may need to make alternative plans or allow additional time to get to your classroom or office. But that’s what strikes are designed to do: workers demonstrate the value of their labor by refusing to perform their work.
These workers are our colleagues and vital members of our campus communities. They are confronting many of the same issues we are: an affordability crisis that makes it impossible to live in the communities where they work; chronic short staffing that increases their workloads and puts their patients and students in danger; and restrictions on their rights to protest and exercise their first amendment rights. AFSCME has been trying to negotiate for living wages and affordable healthcare and housing for months now and have endured bad faith bargaining and disrespectful counter offers from UC negotiators that will be familiar to many of you. Let’s join them in their fight to ensure every UC worker is treated with the dignity and respect they deserve!
We’ve put together this short FAQ for our members to understand your rights and how you can support our striking colleagues. To find a picket line on your campus:
- Find a picket line – AFSCME: https://afscme3299.org/blog/nov2025strike/
- CNA will join the AFSCME picket lines as part of a solidarity strike.
AFSCME represents 35,000 service workers (janitors, food service, transportation), patient care specialists, and skilled craft workers on all UC campuses as well as in the UC’s hospitals. They have announced work stoppages at UC Medical Centers and campuses Nov. 17 and 18 (Monday and Tuesday).
CNA (California Nurses Association) represents more than 25,000 Registered Nurses (RNs) across 19 facilities operated by UC. They will walk the picket lines Nov. 17 and 18 in a sympathy strike with members of AFSCME 3299.
UPTE-CWA, which represents 20,000 healthcare professions, technical workers, laboratory assistants and research specialists across the UC system, has called off their strike after winning a tentative agreement last week, pending ratification by their members.
Our union siblings are striking over the UC’s unfair labor practices (ULPs) and bad faith bargaining. AFSCME’s negotiations with the UC have reached as impasse and the UC has imposed a contract that does not meet their core demands. Since their campaign began nearly two years ago, they have made affordability central to their negotiations. They have been fighting for:
- Livable wages that attract and retain staff;
- Affordable healthcare;
- Housing benefits that high earners already receive;
- Safe staffing to properly care for and serve our patients and students.
In the past three years, nearly 1/3 of AFSCME members have left UC because of this crisis of unaffordability. That staffing shortage has put their members and their patients at risk.
AFSCME has also filed dozens of Unfair Labor Practices charges regarding what they view as UC’s attempts to prevent its workers from protesting and exercising their rights, and threatening workers with discipline and arrest and other intimidation tactics. UC has refused to address many of these demands and AFSCME argues that they have failed to bargain in good faith. Learn more at https://afscme3299.org/blog/nov2025strike/
CNA will be participating in a solidarity strike alongside AFSCME because they share their concerns about affordability, safe staffing, and retention and recruitment. Read their press release here.
Yes! UC-AFT workers are protected by the University of California’s Academic Freedom policy (APM 010) which is codified in Unit 17 and 18 CBAs (collective bargaining agreements). We have the right to express our opinions and to participate in peaceful action as university community members. We must fulfill our professional obligations under the provisions of our Academic Responsibilities (Unit 18 Article 3) and Professional Activities (Unit 17 Article 3) according to our respective CBAs. This means that we must go to work and to class, and we must complete all of our assigned duties as instructional faculty and librarians. Participation in campus activities that do not interfere with those obligations or with the normal functioning of the university is permitted and should not be interfered with by the university.
Not unless you fail to complete your assigned duties as an instructional faculty member or librarian. Participation in campus activities that do not interfere with those obligations or with the normal functioning of the university is permitted and should not be interfered with by the university (See Academic Responsibilities (Unit 18 Article 3) and Professional Activities (Unit 17 Article 3) in our respective CBAs). We have the right to express our opinions and to participate in peaceful action as university community members!
Should you be threatened with discipline for showing your support, contact your campus rep immediately.
Academic Freedom allows us to make decisions about our courses, including modifications to pedagogy and course policies. We also have the right to modify our courses in ways that reflect unique circumstances on campus. As we mention above, as instructors we must maintain our Academic Responsibility (Unit 18 Article 3) as well.
UC-AFT encourages any teaching faculty member who modifies their course to ensure that changes do not harm students, and to clearly notify all of their students of any change.
As we saw during the UAW strike, campus administrators may ask us to participate in their enforcement against striking workers. You do not have to comply with such requests: your academic freedom gives you a right to maintain and uphold reasonable accommodation agreements during periods of campus unrest.
We can join picket lines while we are not teaching or performing our assigned work. Some actions we can take include:
- coordinating visits to the picket line and/or shows of support with other members of our local chapter
- bringing food to the picket lines
- wearing your union t-shirt or buttons in solidarity
- expressing your support for worker on social media
- not attending or participating in other campus activities (seminars, talks, optional department meetings, etc.) or otherwise unnecessarily crossing picket lines.
Supporters of AFSCME are also calling for boycotts on selected stores operated by UC. Check with organizers on your campus for more information on specific locations.
