UC Workers United

1 day ago

Lab workers key to California’s bird flu response are poised to strike
Chronic staff shortages have left the lab struggling to protect the state’s food chain from bird flu, the workers said.
www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/19/bird-flu-california-lab-strike/
February 19, 2025 at 12:00 p.m. ESTToday at 12:00 p.m. EST

Alyssa Laxamana, left; Amy Fletcher, center; and Kayla Dollar are members of the union representing workers at the University of California at Davis laboratory that does testing for the bird flu virus. (Marissa Leshnov/For The Washington Post)

By Hannah Ziegler
Workers at the only lab in California with the authority to confirm high-risk bird flu cases will go on a brief strike next week, claiming that years of understaffing, poor training and burnout have left them struggling to protect the state’s food chain from the rampant virus.
Get a curated selection of 10 of our best stories in your inbox every weekend.

Amid a statewide outbreak that has killed 23 million birds and infected hundreds of cattle herds and dozens of humans, workers say the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System at the University of California at Davis is struggling. Limited career advancement and poor management prompted a staff exodus early last year, former lab workers said, and chronic staffing shortages have since increased errors and left remaining workers ill-equipped to handle virus testing.
“Management has made it clear that they prioritize getting results out fast because we have such a high sample load over ensuring that our results are accurate and pass our quality control program,” said Alyssa Laxamana, a biotech worker at the lab. “That has been really tough.”

The University Professional and Technical Employees-CWA Local 9119 union, which represents Laxamana and nearly 20,000 other laboratory and medical facility workers across the University of California system,voted last week to authorize a three-day strike beginning Feb. 26, citing chronic staff shortages as well as recruitment and retention issues.

Those problems have “real impacts not just on our workers, but for Californians,” Amy Fletcher, UC-Davis co-chair for the union, told The Washington Post. “We are all now aware of the impacts of avian influenza, and if we could listen to workers, it would be much easier to address these concerns.”
Shortly before the strike was announced, Bill Kisliuk, a spokesperson for UC-Davis, told The Post in a two-page email on behalf of the lab that it has met “unprecedented” demand for bird flu testing during the outbreak and “distributed the work broadly among qualified and certified team members.” The union has been negotiating a new contract with the University of California for several months, and at times, “the rhetoric can become heated,” he said.

The lab has brought in temporary workers from other universities, outsourced some testing and hired technicians after last year’s staff departures, Kisliuk said. It also formed a task force last year to ensure “meaningful consideration” of workers’ concerns, he added.
‘A sink-or-swim situation’

Dairy cows at the University of California at Davis, on Feb. 11. Exposure to the bird flu virus is not a death sentence for cows, but the virus can reduce milk output in herds. (Marissa Leshnov/For The Washington Post)
California’s farms are concentrated in a few key regions, such as the Central Valley, making those areas a hotbed for bird flu, said John Korslund, a former staff veterinary epidemiologist for the Agriculture Department. And thanks to a ballot measure passed in 2018 and gradually implemented over subsequent years, egg-laying hens can’t be confined to cages, giving them greater exposure to the wild birds that transmit the virus.
The virus’s severity has exploited cracks in the country’s agricultural and veterinary response systems, and bird flu cases have recently “exploded” in California, said Meghan Davis, an associate professor of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.

“This is a system that’s dealing with a very complex issue which impacts not just dairy cows and not just poultry, but also humans and cats and other species,” Davis said. “Here, you’ve got a system that’s actually primed, and when you overwhelm that system, that gives you a sense of the scale or magnitude” of the outbreak.
Consumers have felt the outbreak’s impact through skyrocketing egg prices. The average price of a dozen large, Grade A eggs in U.S. cities was $4.95 in January, nearly double their price in January 2024, according to federal data. That spike is expected to continue this year.
Since the virus jumped to cattle last year, economists have watched California, which is the country’s 11th-largest egg producer but is by far its biggest milk producer. Bird flu exposure is not a death sentence for cows, unlike for chickens, but the virus has decimated milk output in some affected dairy herds.

So far, bird flu has had a limited impact on California’s dairy industry because most cows have fully recovered after exposure, said Daniel Sumner, an agricultural and resource economics professor at UC-Davis. Still, more than 75 percent of the 950 infected dairy herds in the United States are in California, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to declare a state of emergency in December to “streamline and expedite” its bird flu response.
The UC-Davis lab, which focuses on identifying new areas of infection, is critical to controlling the outbreak. A positive result can prompt farmers to kill thousands of birds, meaning a mistake can critically harm someone’s livelihood. Meanwhile, a false negative result risks exposing more animals and humans to the virus, and further affecting the state’s food chain.
When Laxamana, 25, first tested milk samples for bird flu last September, she had only watched the process twice. She recalled how she had to don scrubs, two sets of surgical gloves, a mask, medical goggles, a lab coat, a hairnet and two sets of medical booties to enter the area where suspect samples are stored. Workers must submit fingerprints and undergo a background check. Daily access also requires an iris scan, and workers must shower before they exit.

“I didn’t even get to practice,” Laxamana said of the complex work, which involves handling highly contagious material. “I didn’t even know if I was doing things correctly.”
The bird flu’s explosiveness has required workers at the UC-Davis lab to test up to 600 samples a day, spending four to six hours per shift sealed in protective gear. Normally, five members of the biotech team would split the work, often aided by a lab assistant and supervisor. But last summer, Laxamana and a colleague, Victoria Ontiveros, were the only people testing samples for avian influenza.

A California law forbids confining egg-laying hens to cages, which gives them greater exposure to the wild birds that transmit the virus. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
By then, the lab had lost decades of expertise, Ontiveros said, including a veteran supervisor who had worked there a dozen years. “We lost all of that institutional knowledge, so that role was put on me with only two years here,” she said. “It’s very much a sink-or-swim situation.”

Before that, workers had raised concerns about inadequate training and persistent burnout due to the bird flu outbreak, according to emails reviewed by The Post. In May 2023, biotech workers delivered a petition asking management to address retention, training and pay equity issues. Later that year, workers wrote in a follow-up letter that their workload had “measurably increased” since another California lab flooded in March 2023.
“We operate with the mindset that the next outbreak is right around the corner, and we need proper training opportunities and competitive salary to remain adequately staffed for that eventuality,” they wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Post.
Kisliuk, the UC-Davis spokesperson, said the task force established last year is “actively pursuing initiatives” identified by staff members and is in “productive conversations” with those who have raised concerns. Workers in the biotech lab must have “exceptional qualifications” and undergo “extensive training,” Kisliuk wrote. The lab is “part of a national system designed to handle surges in testing demand” and has also adopted new sampling protocols to address the outbreak’s severity, he added.
‘This job was killing me’

The lab at UC-Davis is the only lab in California with the authority to confirm high-risk bird flu cases. (Marissa Leshnov/For The Washington Post)
The bird flu outbreak, which began in 2022, exacerbated tensions in the lab and triggered the staff exodus, current and former lab workers told The Post.

Kayla Dollar, 29, left in May 2024 after spending two years as a lab assistant for the biotech section. She worked closely with technicians like Laxamana and Ontiveros but needed a promotion and additional training to help with testing.
In January 2024, Dollar applied to a job with testing duties. Others in the lab, including her supervisor, encouraged her, and she volunteered to train outside of work hours to avoid disrupting the outbreak response. But senior management denied her the chance to compete for the job, saying she lacked experience and her colleagues didn’t have time to train her.
Dollar, who has a degree in lab sciences and two years of outbreak experience, now works in veterinary genetics at another UC-Davis lab, the same job she was previously deemed unqualified to work.
“I stepped up when they needed me,” Dollar said. “It didn’t matter.”

Samantha Hale, 28, joined the lab’s virology team in June 2023 but was eventually pulled into biotech support. She recalled how weekly lab meetings would devolve into arguments about understaffing and struggles to fix testing errors. Senior management discouraged technicians from working overtime, Hale said, but they found it impossible otherwise to keep up with the barrage of samples.
Management strictly monitored workers’ breaks, scheduled their lunches and moved their shifts, creating a “very tumultuous, emotionally fraught environment,” Hale said. She took medical leave last November, after the stress contributed to debilitating migraines. When her leave ended, she quit.
“I genuinely am worried about our lack of ability to do the testing properly and what that means for the public, both in terms of an increased potential for human-to-human transmission and how it affects food availability and pricing,” Hale said. But, “this job was killing me.”
Close calls on testing
Since last summer, senior managers have hired technicians, and scientists from the University of Wisconsin and Cornell University have completed rotations at the lab, Ontiveros said.
In addition, lower-priority testing — including for routine diseases, other foreign animal diseases and avian influenza in already-infected places — has been outsourced, allowing the biotech staff at UC-Davis to focus on “higher-priority H5N1 testing,” said Kisliuk, the UC-Davis spokesperson.
But concerns persist about training support and transparency, Ontiveros said. Senior technicians have faced extra pressure to manage new hires and catch mistakes, Laxamana added. She recalled several close calls when testing errors yielded incorrect results, requiring her or Ontiveros to intervene.
And so far, the workload changes haven’t curbed churn. The lab’s replacement supervisor, who arrived in the fall, quit in December, Ontiveros said.
“You can get bodies in there, but if you’re not training them properly, they’re not going to feel comfortable enough to work by themselves, and they’re going to feel defeated,” Ontiveros said.
Laxamana and Ontiveros have considered leaving as well. But they worry about the impact on California’s food chain if they abandon their bird flu battle stations.
“If we leave,” Laxamana said, “there’s really no one else who’s going to stay and do the job.” … See MoreSee Less

Lab workers key to California’s bird flu response are poised to strike

www.washingtonpost.com

Chronic staff shortages have left the California lab struggling to protect the state’s food chain from bird flu, the workers said.

UC Workers United

6 days ago

AFSCME Local 3299 announces strike against UC for Feb. 26, 27

dailybruin.com/2025/02/14/afscme-local-3299-announces-strike-against-uc-for-feb-26-27

Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 – which represents service, patient care and skilled crafts workers – demonstrate on campus as part of a November strike. The union has called on its workers to strike again Feb. 26 and Feb. 27. (Edward Ho/Daily Bruin)
dylan.jpegBy Dylan Winward
Feb. 14, 2025 12:29 p.m.
A major UC union announced Friday that it will go on a two-day strike later this month.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 – which represents service, patient care and skilled crafts workers – called on its workers to strike Feb. 26 and Feb. 27 across all 10 University campuses. Around 37,000 workers are represented by the union, according to an AFSCME Local 3299 press release.

In the press release, the union alleged that the University has negotiated in bad faith on a new contract. The UC’s previous contracts with workers represented by the union expired in July and October 2024, and the two parties have not yet come to an agreement.

“By refusing to bargain in good faith, the University has made it clear that it does not value the frontline workers who clean its facilities, serve food, and treat patients,” said AFSCME Local 3299 President Michael Avant in the press release.

The union also alleged in new unfair labor practices charges filed Monday that the University used intimidation – including threats of disciplinary action following new speech rules and of arrest for protesting – to prevent workers from striking.

“UC’s actions directly attack AFSCME members’ ability to advocate for themselves as they demand that UC address the cost-of-living crisis and housing unaffordability at the University, and they are blatantly illegal,” the union said in the ULP charge it filed.

The ULP charge, which was filed with the Public Employment Relations Board, also alleged UCLA specifically has policies to prohibit leafleting on campus. The university announced new Time, Place and Manner protests governing protests in September, following several student and union protests in spring 2024.

“At UCLA, UC gave AFSCME a ‘final warning’ that its picketing activity violated access rules, because AFSCME used bullhorns without UC’s approval and did not secure advance approval from UC to picket in locations AFSCME has long used for protests,” the union said in the ULP charge.

UC Office of the President Media Relations spokespeople did not respond in time to a request for comment on the allegations.

AFSCME Local 3299 previously called for a strike in November, with thousands of workers demonstrating to call attention to what they saw as bad-faith bargaining practices from the University. In response to the strike, UCLA consolidated dining halls, leading to long lines for food on the Hill.

Protesters supporting the union also marched through campus buildings – including Bunche Hall, Boelter Hall and the Mathematical Sciences Building – while chanting as part of picketing demonstrations during the November strike.

[Related: AFSCME Local 3299 rallies together for 2-day strike against UC]

The union has not yet announced picket times and locations for the strike. UCLA Media Relations did not respond in time to requests for comment on how the university plans to mitigate the strike’s impact on students. … See MoreSee Less

AFSCME Local 3299 announces strike against UC for Feb. 26, 27 – Daily Bruin

dailybruin.com

A major UC union announced Friday that it will go on a two-day strike later this month. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 – which represents service, patien…

UC Workers United

7 days ago

Thousands of University of California healthcare, research employees vote to authorize strike
www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-02-14/thousands-of-university-of-california-healthcare-resear…

UPTE-CWA Local 9119 President Dan Russell and union member Maryam Azizadah pose with picket signs.
UPTE-CWA Local 9119 President Dan Russell and union member Maryam Azizadah pose with picket signs. (Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
By Suhauna Hussain
Staff Writer
Feb. 14, 2025 9:33 AM PT

Thousands of University of California healthcare, research and technical employees voted to authorize a strike, citing what they described as systemic and ongoing staffing shortages that erode patient care and hurt research operations.

The strike authorization comes amid strained negotiations between the university and University Professional and Technical Employees-CWA Local 9119, the union representing nearly 20,000 employees in various research labs and medical facilities across the 10-campus UC system.

The unionized workers include nurse case managers, mental health counselors, optometrists, pharmacists, physical therapists, clinical researchers, IT analysts and animal health technicians.

The union said it’s planning a three-day strike beginning Feb. 26.

A strike could affect operations at hospitals and clinics as well as research at the UC on cancer, food safety, virology, climate change and other issues. Among union members are lab technicians at a UC Davis lab critical to California’s efforts to track and prevent bird flu as it spreads through cattle herds.

The union, known as UPTE, said it called for the strike vote because the university has failed to bargain in good faith in negotiations that began last June. It accuses UC of unlawfully imposing “draconian” restrictions on where workers can picket and retaliating against some employees at UC San Francisco who participated in a two-day work stoppage in November.

Union officials said the university has improperly raised healthcare costs and has refused to engage meaningfully in discussion of staffing vacancies as well as problems with recruitment and promotions.

“We’re hoping this will send a message to UC about our members being fed up with these unfair labor practices,” UPTE President Dan Russell said in a statement. “We hope this will produce a change in UC’s behavior.”

Union members voted overwhelmingly in support of the strike authorization — with 98% voting in favor — the union said Friday. The union declined to provide a count of total votes cast, although it has said that at least 9,000 votes were submitted in the first week.

For its part, the university denies that it faces a staffing crisis, and said it has offered robust wages and benefits and accused UPTE of prematurely leaving the bargaining table.

“It’s disheartening that UPTE continues to talk about striking and insisting UC come back to the bargaining table when they didn’t show up for the last scheduled bargaining session and then declared negotiations were at an impasse before responding to UC’s previous offers,” UC spokesperson Heather Hansen said in an email.

Hansen said UC “has been and remains ready to settle these contracts.”

In the event of a strike, Hansen said that “the University [system] is prepared to make every effort to ensure the critical operations of the University system, which includes patient care, continue at a level of excellence that UC patients, students, faculty, and staff expect.”

UPTE-CWA Local 9119 members phone bank in their offices
UPTE-CWA Local 9119 members phone bank in their offices in Westwood on Tuesday, calling workers about casting their ballots in a strike authorization vote. (Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times) (Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
The university has proposed a 5% across-the-board pay increase beginning July 1 and a 3% wage increase the second and third years of the contract. It also offered to raise all lower-paid employees to pay of at least $25 an hour by July 1.

The union contends the pay offer is lower than wages the university has agreed to for other employees such as nurses, and would leave UPTE-represented workers struggling with ballooning expenses due to inflation.

Several workers in interviews cited high workloads and burnout as reasons for voting to approve a strike.

Amelia Cutten, 40, a behavioral health counselor at UC Santa Cruz, said she and about a dozen other counselors and psychologists at the Cowell Student Health Center struggle to keep up with large caseloads.

“It’s really hard when we are trying to do our work and serve students who are coming to us at really critical times,” Cutten said. “We want our students to have the best care.”

Maryam Azizadah, a clinical research coordinator assistant at UCLA working with cancer patients, said that her job requires a high level of attention and expertise to understand finicky protocols of various clinical trials. She described juggling requests, rushing to order tissue samples to determine eligibility for some 70 patients at a time.

“I felt overwhelmed by the barrage of emails and requests and responsibilities, and I just couldn’t do it all,” Azizadah said. “I found myself making these mistakes and missing emails because I was one person doing the job of two people and I felt really guilty.” … See MoreSee Less

Thousands of University of California healthcare, research employees vote to authorize strike

www.latimes.com

The University Professional and Technical Employees CWA Local 9119, representing approximately 20,000 UC healthcare, research and technical employees, announced the results of a strike authorization v…

UC Workers United

1 month ago

Protect Workers Freedom of Expression At UCSF docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfATaDuZlDdXkD2NqDSRNO7uIJXyMstLZMrlWd8uxpFPsu5Og/viewform?fbcli…. Pledge to

The growing need to protect workers ability to speak up for human rights and against racism is paramount to the tenets of union organizing and as healthcare workers, we advocate and care for communities everywhere. We are in a moment where workers across the country are facing a concerted effort by their employers to repress their voices and their rights. Workers are being heavily scrutinized due to their activism, use of free speech and protesting.

We are deeply disappointed to see this happening at UCSF, an institution that advertises its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. While the University allows workers to wear insignia in support of certain marginalized communities, organizations, and unions, it is forcing workers to remove watermelon pins, a symbol that represents the Palestinian people. UCSFs demand for workers to remove watermelon pins is a violation of our right to freedom of expression and threatens our ability to stand up for marginalized communities everywhere. If you believe that workers should be protected in their right to free speech and the ability to represent the communities they care for and about please sign this pledge.

Endorsed by
California Nurses Association – CNA
UPTE CWA 9119 … See MoreSee Less

Pledge to Protect Workers Freedom of Expression

docs.google.com

The growing need to protect workers ability to speak up for human rights and against racism is paramount to the tenets of union organizing and as healthcare workers, we advocate and care for communiti…