UCSC Trades Workers Strike For Better Pay

SANTA CRUZ, CA — Trades workers at the University of California, Santa Cruz are calling for better pay to live more comfortably in a high cost of living area and additional hires to lower the worker-to-student ratio, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reported.

The strikes come amid stalled negotiations for trades workers, such as plumbers or electricians, represented by AFSCME 3299. The university told the paper Monday that it had been bargaining for more than 2½ years, and offered trades workers a 23 percent raise over the next four years, a $2,500 bonus, double-pay for work performed past the 12-hour-per-day mark and health care cost increase caps.

Meanwhile, a graduate student strike continued at the campus, the Sentinel reported. Graduate students called for a pay increase to account for an increasing cost of living in Santa Cruz and are withholding student grades in protest.

Read more at the Santa Cruz Sentinel.