Possible strike at UC hospitals (including UCLA)

2008 strike at UCLA hospital

From the State Worker blog of the Sacramento Bee: The University of California said today that it will ask a judge to keep hospital workers from striking later this month. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 says its members will walk off the job at the university system’s five hospitals May 21 and May 22. UC officials and the union have been in negotiations since last summer for a new contract covering some 13,000 patient care workers. The contract expired Oct. 1, and the contentious talks deadlocked earlier this year. AFSCME says it’s fighting to fix unsafe hospital conditions and foolish spending by high-level university officials who enrich themselves while seeking cuts to employee compensation. The university counters that the union’s real aim is to avoid new state laws that significantly reduce retirement benefits for new pension-system members…

Full story at http://blogs.sacbee.com/the_state_worker/2013/05/university-of-california-wants-court-to-stop-workers-strike.html

It might be noted that unlike many states, California does not have a general prohibition on strikes by public employees although such strikes may be enjoined in some cases.  Labor relations matters in private hospitals are subject to federal regulation by the National Labor Relations Board NLRB).  Because UC is a state entity, however, labor relations issues at UC hospitals are regulated by state law and the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB).  The particular state law covering UC (and CSU) is the Higher Education Employment Relations Act (HEERA) which can be found at http://www.perb.ca.gov/laws/HEERA.aspx. A strike at UC hospitals last occurred in 2008.  An earlier post on this blog concerning the current situation is at http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2013/04/strike-vote-to-be-taken-at-uc-med.html.