On Nov. 17, 2025, the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees Local 3299 (AFSCME 3299) began their strike at the University of California campuses, including the University of California, Riverside (UCR). The strike lasted from Nov. 17–18. From custodians to food service workers, over 65,000 campus employees and health care workers associated with the AFSCME union joined the strike at multiple UC campuses.
Amongst those at the strike was California State Senator Sabrina Cervantes, a former UCR student. During her speech she established, “I am honored to stand with you today because you are the backbone of the greatest public university in the entire world. 3299, I want you to know that we are here to stand together.”
AFSCME claimed that they are protesting over the “University’s failure to settle contracts addressing the cost of living and affordability crises facing the University’s most economically vulnerable workers.” They also stated that they are representing UC employees that have been working without a contract for over a year.
AFSCME’s priorities include: livable wages, affordable healthcare, safe staffing and housing benefits. They claimed their “members have been priced out of local housing markets by wage rates that have failed to keep pace with inflation, leading thousands to leave their jobs and fueling the growing staff vacancy crisis at UC.” Negotiations have been going on since June.
Before the strikes took place, the UC system released a statement claiming, “Despite UC’s continued outreach, AFSCME has not presented any substantive counterproposals since April 2025.”
The UC states its current proposal includes a 28 percent wage increase over five years. It also maintains that it has bargained in “good faith” with AFSCME since June and that the agreement in place has set AFSCME employees’ starting wage at $25 an hour.
According to a fact sheet the UC released, the new $25 starting wage — described as a five percent increase over previous wages — took effect in July 2025 and includes healthcare subsidiaries. But AFSCME representatives and union workers disputed these claims during the strike at UCR.
The first speaker at the UCR location was Ricardo Cisneros, a former UCR employee and current executive secretary-treasurer for the Inland Empire Labor Council. Recounting his experiences working as a cook at UCR over 20 years ago, he asserted that “there is no difference back then as to what it is now,” referencing the AFSCME claims over insufficient healthcare and the raise in parking prices for employees.
Jeanette Obeji, who works as a cook in the Lothian Residence Hall, said the union’s contract ended last year and that employees have been pushing the UC for a fair replacement for more than a year, claiming the UC is eliminating raises and increasing parking costs for workers. Explaining what the union is looking for in a contract, Obeji shared, “We are asking for something fair, we are asking for our wages to be reasonable. If our wages are increasing, but everything else is increasing then what’s the point of the raise?”
Alongside union workers, students also joined the strike in solidarity. Briana Trujillo, Vice President of External Affairs for Associated Students of UCR voiced, “We as students, we see the work that you all do, we see that you all are here to repair a contract, and we are tired to see the UC not negotiate with you all.”
AFSCME ended their two day strike on Nov. 18, 2025 and are still in negotiations with the UC.
