Tens of Thousands of UC Workers Set to Strike as Nurses Secure Tentative Agreement

Source: KQED

By Juan Carlos Lara
Nov 16, 2025
Updated 5:57 pm PT

Tens of thousands of University of California workers plan to go on a two-day strike across the state, nearly two years after they began negotiating a contract.

The strike, set for Monday and Tuesday, will be led by AFSCME 3299, which represents more than 40,000 custodians, food service workers, patient care assistants and hospital technicians. They had expected to be joined by roughly 25,000 nurses with the California Nurses Association, who had planned to strike in solidarity.

Registered nurses reached a tentative agreement with the university, prompting the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United to cancel the sympathy strike with AFSCME Local 3299. The agreement covered more than 25,000 nurses across 19 UC-operated facilities, who had been bargaining since June. Thousands of nurses still planned to join AFSCME picket lines while off duty, and UC nurses will vote on the tentative agreement later this week.

Negotiations began in January of 2024 but reached a deadlock in April, with AFSCME and university blaming each other for failing to make meaningful compromises, particularly on wages.


Academic workers strike at UC Berkeley, on Nov. 16, 2022. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Read more: https://www.kqed.org/news/12064154/uc-workers-plan-two-day-strike-as-wage-talks-stall-and-staffing-shortages-deepen