UC Irvine workers join one-day strike alleging workplace retaliation

University of California service and patient care workers held a one-day strike Wednesday at the UC Irvine, UCLA and UC San Francisco, San Diego and Davis medical centers.

AFSCME Local 3299, UC’s largest employee union, asserts that employees have faced workplace retaliation for their participation in the union and filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the university system with the state Public Employment Relations Board on March 25.

Wednesday’s strike, as opposed to previous walkouts that focused on negotiations about wages and labor outsourcing, was meant to address those allegations.

The strike came three weeks after the last protest March 20.

Vicente Chavez, a custodian at UC Irvine Medical Center, holds a sign while on the picket line Wednesday.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)