OAKLAND,CA / AGILITYPR.NEWS / May 22, 2026 / AFSCME Local 3299, the union representing more than 42,000 University of California Service and Patient Care workers has announced that its membership today ratified the tentative contract agreement it reached last week with University negotiators. After three days of voting by tens of thousands of members this week, more than 96% voted in support of the agreement.

AFSCME Local 3299’s new agreements include winning the largest pay increases ever obtained by UC Service and Patient Care Workers, and the lowest healthcare rates in the UC system. Most of UC’s lowest paid workers will see their insurance premiums decrease next year, and the system’s minimum wage will reach $30 per hour by November 2029, when the new contract expires. UC workers also won additional layoff and staffing protections, caps on parking rate increases, additional child care leave, and the right to negotiate increases to on-call pay and shift differentials at each UC location.

In response to the overwhelming Ratification vote from the membership, AFSCME Local 3299 President Michael Avant issued the following statement:

“For nearly three years, the frontline workers that we represent have stood shoulder to shoulder, demanding the university take meaningful action to address the affordability crisis pricing them out of the communities where they work, and forcing impossible choices on their families. The agreements ratified today make historic progress and deliver long overdue certainty to the service and patient care professionals who make UC run.

This process took persistence, sacrifice and unflinching solidarity. This week’s vote only illustrates the unity of purpose and principle that has bound our members together through every step of the process. Our goal was always to ensure our members would be better off and better able to keep pace with rising costs so they can build a better future for their families.

And that’s precisely what this new contract delivers. 

Every one of our members is clear eyed about what comes next. We will vigorously enforce our historic new gains at the jobsite. And we have organized more than 1.3 million Californians behind a bi-partisan ballot initiative that would help thousands of our members realize the dream of homeownership and generate new revenues for UC at no cost to state taxpayers. We will fight tirelessly until this common-sense measure becomes law.

Because when we fight, we win.”