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Thousands of service workers including custodians, gardeners, security guards and others are protesting at University of California campuses on Monday. The service workers are demanding the University of California to address inequalities and increase their wages. They will strike until Wednesday, according to the Around 6:00 am, the strikers gathered at University of California campuses.  They are wearing green T-shirts that say “We run UC” and carrying placards stating their demand for “equality, fairness, and respect.” Last week, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299, which represents the service workers, called the three-day strike. The union made the decision after it failed to reach a new contract with the University of California. AFSCME Local 3299 represents 25,000 service workers. It also represents 29,000 medical workers including nurses, nursing aides, respiratory therapists, surgical technicians and more. Over the next two days, the medical workers are expected to join the strike to support university service workers. Some hospitals already rescheduled patients’ appointments in anticipation of the strike. In an interview with AP News, John de los Angeles, the spokesman for AFSCME, said, they want University of California to tackle the widening inequality. They want it to stop outsourcing workers. De los Angeles said, “They are actively seeking to hire contract workers in favor of directly employed workers simply because they are cheaper and that is driving inequality.”

University of California calls labor union’s demand “unreasonable”

On the other hand, University of California spokeswoman Claire Doan said the union is demanding almost 20% wage increase for service workers over three years. She pointed out their salaries are already at or above market rates. For more than a year, AFSCME 3299 has been negotiating its demands with the University of California. The university offered an annual increase of 3% over four years and an an annual cap of $25 for any monthly premium increase. Additionally, its proposal to raise the retirement age to 65 to qualify for full benefits will apply only to new employees who opted a pension instead of a 401 (k) plan. Furthermore, the university proposed to reduce employees’ retirement contribution by 2% to 7% to sweeten the deal. The labor union rejected the university’s offers. “A disruptive demonstration will change neither UC’s economic situation nor the university’s position on AFSCME’s unreasonable demands,” said Doan.