University of California President Mark Yudof said patients at the university's medical centers will be at risk if thousands of union workers make good on their plans to strike.
Last week, unions announced that their members had overwhelmingly approved a strike. Both sides are debating a contract, including pension benefits.
A strike could be devastating, Yudof said during a meeting of the UC Board of Regents in Sacramento on Wednesday morning. "It would endanger patient safety," he said. "It would cost the university itself $10 million a day. And of course it would cost the employees money, those who participated."
A strike would affect UC's medical centers and campus clinics.
A union rep said the current pension program enriches top executives at the expense of front-line workers. Yudof said the benefits of current employees will not be touched.