More than 24,000 registered nurses working for University of California hospitals statewide — 4,000 at UC San Diego Health — will report to work Monday, dropping their plans to strike in sympathy with service workers. The change was made after a tentative agreement was reached on a new contract Sunday, just hours before a thicket of picket signs was to appear.
The announcement shrinks the total number of workers expected to walk off their jobs during the two-day strike called by members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 who have been bargaining for better wages and benefits since before their contract expired in August of 2024.
With members of the California Nurses Association striking in solidarity, the total number of demonstrating workers was estimated to reach about 65,000 statewide but, without the nurses on strike lines, the number is closer to 40,000.
Though an up-to-date figure has not been provided, the University of California said in July of 2024 that more than 7,100 AFSCME members work at UCSD, about 2,700 on campus and 4,300 in the university health system. They do a wide range of jobs, including custodian, food service, patient care assistant and hospital technician.
The details of the tentative new nursing contract, which has been under negotiation since June, were not released on Sunday.
However, the university said in a statement on Oct. 2 that it offered nurses 27% wage increases spread over a five-year contract with 7% of that amount in the first year and also an unspecified one-time cash payment. The cost of the previous package was said to be $1.1 billion across the university’s six medical campuses.
While the disruption to patients will surely be lower Monday and Tuesday with nurses staying away from strike lines, an internal notice announcing the CNA contract finds that the AFSCME strike “will affect operations” with the university deploying temporary workers and labor pool volunteers to cover shifts.