Nearly 24,000 union nurses are set to begin negotiating a new three-year labor contract Wednesday, Aug. 6 with the University of California’s health care system.
The contract expiration Oct. 31 comes at a tough time for the UC’s medical facilities, which have been dealing with the economic challenges of rising healthcare and tuition costs at its schools and “uncertainty about federal funding,” according to the UC.
Roughly 13,400 of the 24,000 union nurses work at UC medical facilities in Orange, Los Angeles and San Diego counties, according to university records. The other 11,000 work in Northern California.
Marlene Tupay, who is one of nine people bargaining on behalf of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses United (CNA/NNU), said that the issues to be presented Aug. 6-7 at the bargaining session in Oakland include better pay, benefits and a push to hire more nurses to “safe levels.”
A priority also is being given to halt the UC management’s growing practice of short-staffing its facilities, and cutting back on resources, said Tupay, who also is a registered nurse with the UC Irvine Health in Orange.
The union also alleges the UC system is using “shadow beds” and long emergency room wait times as a result of management’s prioritization of more profitable elective surgeries. A so-called shadow bed happens when another bed is added to a room designed to have one patient. Nurses have raised concerns about patient privacy in these rooms, as well as the safety issues of navigating a room filled with medical equipment and limited space.
UC spokeswoman Heather Hansen disputed the claims, saying that UC health centers adhere to the nurse staffing ratios outlined in California’s code of regulations, and adjusts staffing levels regularly “to meet patient care needs across our facilities.”
Tupay also said that the nurses’ union wants to “correct the parity issue, where nurses here in Southern California are getting paid less than the nurses in Northern California.”
AFSCME wants to negotiate
Meanwhile, representatives of another union, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 3299 (AFSCME), are expected to sit at the same negotiating table with the nurses to make sure their demands are heard following the university’s alleged attempt to subvert a collective bargaining process this summer with their union.
On July 1, the UC implemented a “last, best and final offer” — or LBFO — for 37,000 AFSCME employees due to “uncertainty about federal funding,” according to a UC statement.
On Aug. 1, 2025, the Trump administration froze $339 million in UCLA grants while accusing the school of civil rights violations.
AFSCME’s workforce of patient care support, custodial, transportation and basic support services — were given a take-it or leave-it improvement in pay and health care benefits.
“UCLA bypassed the collective bargaining process. It is not an agreement, but rather UCLA trying to impose a wage cut on a segment that can least afford it,” said AFSCME spokesman Todd Stenhouse.
The UC medical system in recent years has been expanding rapidly. The number of UC nurses represented by CNA/NNU has grown by nearly 34% due to acquisitions, going from 18,000 people to just over 24,000 in the past 18 months, according to the union.
Tupay said that the staffing shortage was exacerbated last year by UC’s purchase of Tenet Healthcare Corp.’s Pacific Coast Network, which included four hospitals and outpatient locations, for $975 million. UCI Health integrated Tenet’s four hospitals in Fountain Valley, Lakewood, Los Alamitos and Placentia.
