UC nurses join strikers Tuesday

Registered nurses at the University of California’s five major medical centers and 10 student health centers will picket alongside other UC employees Tuesday and Wednesday as part of a three-day systemwide strike, the California Nurses Association said in a statement Tuesday morning.

Nurses are striking in sympathy with workers of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Service Unit. The strike is expected to last until Thursday morning after a year of stalled contract talks and new research showing rising inequality in the treatment of workers of color and low-wage women workers at the university.

Michelle Kay, a nurse practitioner at the University of California at Berkeley’s Tang Center, in a statement:

“We all play a critical role in making UC the institution it is.”

Four other union bargaining units and the California Nurses Association are striking in sympathy with the AFSCME Service Unit.

The units represent about 10,800 UCSF campus and UCSF Health employees and include clinical staff important to the care of patients, according to university officials.

The employees on strike include nurses, operating room specialists, patient care assistants, pharmacy technicians and pharmacists, phlebotomists, psychologists, research coordinators and social workers, as well as custodians, food service workers and shuttle drivers, according to campus officials.