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UC workers and unions warn of strike as staff protest health-plan cost hikes
Summary
Unions and health-care workers told the Board of Regents that proposed increases to premiums, copays and specialty-drug coinsurance will harm patients and workers and said bargaining has been bad-faith, with several unions preparing strikes if the university proceeds.
Dan Russell, president of UPTI and an information-technology worker at UC Berkeley, told the Regents that bargaining with the university has been conducted in bad faith and that unresolved staffing and vacancy data remain withheld: “We requested data on vacancies 18 months ago, and we've received nothing,” he said, adding that members have voted to authorize strikes if talks do not change.
Nurses and other clinical staff echoed those concerns during the public-comment period. Matthew Jones of the California Nurses Association said proposed health-cost increases are “way too high” and urged more transparency from UC administrators. Elizabeth Funchal, a chief nurse representative at UCSF Parnassus, said last year’s changes raised costs for some families by as much as $800 a month and that nurses will not accept repeat increases.
Catherine Cobb, president of Teamsters Local 2010, said the university plans to raise employee health-care premiums and expand coinsurance beginning Jan. 1, 2025, and warned that those changes “have far exceeded annual inflation now for 2 straight years.” Cobb told the board the increases risk forcing employees to forgo necessary medications and services and urged meaningful employee input on benefit decisions.
Union leaders and staff speakers described a systemwide staffing and retention crisis that they say is harming patient care and research and called on the Regents to halt or revise benefit changes and bargain in good faith. Dan Russell told the board his members are prepared to strike: “Our members are frustrated, but they are not going to give up.”
The Regents did not respond to the public commenters during the allotted public-comment period. The board’s agenda for the coming days includes budget discussions and additional briefings from UC Health professionals; any formal response or action on benefits and bargaining would be discussed during staff and committee sessions later in the meeting.
