In what could become one of the largest labor actions in the University of California’s history, more than 86,000 nurses, health care professionals and campus workers - including those at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley - plan to walk off the job this month, accusing the university of neglecting its lowest-paid employees while rewarding those at the top.

UC officials have sharply disputed those claims, arguing that the unions’ wage and benefit demands go beyond what the university can responsibly afford.

The two-day strike is set for Nov. 17-18 and will affect 18 UC health facilities statewide, including the UCSF Mission Bay and Parnassus campuses, UC Berkeley and Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland.

It brings together members of three major unions - AFSCME Local 3299, UPTE-CWA Local 9119 and the California Nurses Association - who say the UC system has failed to offer contracts that reflect the soaring cost of living in California’s most expensive regions.

More than 86,000 University of California nurses and staff will strike this month, demanding higher pay, affordable housing and better staffing. (UPTE CWA 9119 )

AFSCME, which represents about 40,000 service and patient care technical workers, says many of its members have been priced out of the communities where they work as wages lag behind inflation.

“During nearly two years of bargaining, UC has spent billions of dollars acquiring new facilities, lavishing exorbitant raises on its wealthiest executives and funding housing assistance programs to help these same ivory tower elites buy mansions or second homes - but it won’t offer its frontline workers enough to pay the rent or keep pace with the skyrocketing cost of groceries,” Michael Avant, the union’s president, said in a statement.

UPTE-CWA, representing 21,000 healthcare, research and technical professionals, said the strike is intended to draw attention to what it calls an escalating staffing crisis that threatens both patient care and university research.

About 25,000 nurses represented by the California Nurses Association will join the walkout in solidarity.

Union leaders say the situation has reached a breaking point. In their statement, AFSCME officials said more than a third of UC’s service and patient care technical workers have left their jobs in the past three years, driven away by low pay and long commutes.

“I’m worried that more UC workers are going to end up homeless if something doesn’t change,” Ruth Zolayvar, a pharmacy technician at UC San Diego, said in a statement. “It shouldn’t be this hard to survive.”

More than 86,000 University of California nurses and staff will strike this month, demanding higher pay, affordable housing and better staffing. (UPTE CWA 9119 )

The University of California, which has been negotiating separately with the three unions, condemned the planned strike as “an attempt to pressure the university into accepting unreasonable wage and benefit demands that would put UC in a financially precarious position and jeopardize its mission of teaching, research and public service.”

In a statement, the university said it has bargained in good faith for more than a year and offered “strong, competitive proposals” that include wage increases, health care subsidies and improved benefits.

“UC has consistently shown up ready to negotiate, compromise, and implement real improvements that reflect our genuine value for our employees,” the statement said.

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The University of California said its hospitals and clinics will remain open during the strike, though some surgeries and appointments may be delayed.

Union leaders, meanwhile, said they have formed a “patient protection task force” to ensure critical care workers can respond to emergencies if needed.

This article originally published at ‘UC workers are going to end up homeless’: 86,000 University of California employees plan massive strike.