Dozens of UC Workers, Labor Leaders Arrested While Protesting Understaffing, Unfair Wages

About two dozen demonstrators were arrested Wednesday morning after staging a sit-in to support UC laborers during the final day of the University of California’s Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco.

Lorena Gonzalez, the president of the California Labor Federation, and Teresa Romero, the national president of United Farm Workers, joined about 20 union-backed UC workers who were zip-tied and removed from the William J. Rutter Center at UC San Francisco’s Mission Bay campus just after 9:30 a.m.

Demonstrators refused to leave the room as the board prepared to go into a closed-door meeting, chanting “Whose university? Our university” in an effort to call out UC leadership for what they say are unsafe job vacancy rates and unfair wages amid ongoing contract negotiations.

“Our UC unions have been on strike four times, they’ve been without a contract since November, and it’s time for the UC Regents to intervene and settle the contract,” Gonzalez said as campus police officers arrested her and others who remained in the conference hall after the public comment period of the Regents’ regularly scheduled bi-monthly meeting.

In a statement, the UC said it “supports our employees’ rights to engage in lawful protests and free speech activities. At the same time, all community members must abide by the University’s reasonable time, place and manner rules.”

The action follows four recent work stoppages by members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3299 and University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE) Local 9119 unions, which represent a collective 55,000 UC employees, since they kicked off bargaining campaigns last June and January, respectively.

Both negotiations have been in a stalemate for months as the unions lobby for higher wages, which they say haven’t kept up with the cost of living around UC campuses, leaving some workers without stable housing and others with hour-long commutes to their jobs.

The university has offered UPTE a 5% wage increase starting July 1, 2025, followed by a 3% raise both in 2026 and 2027. Its “best and final” offer for AFSCME in April included raises of 5% in 2025, 4% in 2026 and 3% in 2027, 2028 and 2029.

While university officials said earlier this month that they have attempted to negotiate “mutually beneficial contracts” with both unions repeatedly, the unions have said the proposals are insufficient.

“They want these workers to accept a permanent wage cut, higher healthcare costs, continued desperate under-staffing, no assistance with housing, even though they’re giving all the assistance in the world to their wealthiest executives who clearly don’t need it,” said Todd Steinhaus, a spokesperson for AFSCME. The union’s stance is that meager wage increases are outpaced by inflation, netting a loss of income.

Workers are also pushing for increased staffing at medical sites, like UCSF, that they say are chronically understaffed, contributing to employee burnout and poor patient care.

UPTE said UCSF’s social workers are paid 32% less than hospital-based workers, compounding staffing shortages within the school’s citywide case management programs through San Francisco’s public-private partnership with Tipping Point Community, Mayor Daniel Lurie’s anti-poverty nonprofit, that offers housing-focused services.

In March, the school enacted a systemwide hiring freeze in response to the Trump administration’s threats to university funding, prompting complaints with state workforce regulators alleging that the UC failed to notify them of the hiring freeze or to allow bargaining over it ahead of time.

After the arrests on Wednesday, hundreds of union members marched through the campus, holding signs that read “Safe Staffing Now” and “Fair Contract Now.”

“Given the continued threats to federal funding, the University is grateful it has been able to provide its UPTE and AFSCME-represented employees with fair and reasonable wage and health care offers,” the UC statement said. It said that AFSCME has only provided one counteroffer, and UPTE has yet to provide a counteroffer to its deal proposed late last year.

Elizabeth Strater, the national vice president of United Farm Workers, was among the crowd gathered to oppose UC leaders. She said the wider labor movement in the state is watching to see how the school system handles its contract negotiations with workers moving forward.

“The whole of the California labor movement has got their eyes on UC right now,” she told KQED at the meeting. “We’ve been watching people really try to get some justice for these frontline workers for a long period of time, and I think we’re at a point right now where we’re not asking anymore. We really do expect [the UC] to do right by these workers.”

KQED’s Juan Carlos Lara contributed to this story.