After more than a year of negotiations, the University of California today offered its employees, represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union, a comprehensive and competitive last, best and final offer (LBFO) that meets their original demand of $25 an hour and a 5% wage increase. The two parties have been negotiating a new contract since January 2024.
UC’s last, best, and final offer is projected to raise AFSCME salaries to more than $3 billion by the end of the proposed five-year contract. It represents an increase of nearly $600 million in wages since the end of the last contract and is $113 million higher than UC’s initial offer made in February 2024.
During these uncertain times, UC’s LBFO demonstrates to these critical team members that it is listening to their demands and that it values their service. It also provides a clear signal to the union that UC has provided its final and best offer in these ongoing negotiations.
“Despite the challenging fiscal environment created by recent federal and state budget constraints, we remain committed to fairly compensating our dedicated workforce,” said Associate Vice President for Systemwide Labor and Employee Relations Missy Matella. “This offer represents our ongoing investment in our most valuable resource—our people—while we continue to navigate budget realities.”
Details of UC’s last best and final offer include:
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Annual across-the-board wage increases of 5% in 2025, 4% in 2026, and 3% in 2027, 2028, and 2029, with each year building upon prior increases, resulting in 19.3% total increases over the contract term.
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Eligible employees would also receive step increases of approximately 2% each year from 2026 through 2029, which, along with ATBs, result in total wage increases of 29% over the contract term.
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In conjunction with the above increases, 7,689 AFSCME-represented UC employees will see their hourly pay increase to a minimum of $25 per hour by July 2025.
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Added Juneteenth as a paid holiday, bringing the total paid holidays to 14, and expanded vacation and sick leave. December 24 would be a premium-pay holiday. The proposal would provide premium pay for six of the 14 paid holidays.
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Monthly health insurance premium credits of $75-$125 to reduce costs for those who elect Kaiser HMO or UC Blue and Gold HMO. If accepted, many AFSCME-represented UC employees will have access to $0 health care premiums.
While UC is excited about making a competitive LBFO that supports its valued team members, it is closely tracking reductions in state and federal revenue sources, associated budget shortfalls, and what workforce actions may be necessary to address those shortfalls.
UC has offered AFSCME dozens of proposals throughout the bargaining process. While AFSCME had not responded to UC’s proposals for more than 11 months, AFSCME finally presented counterproposals recently with minimal, if not regressive, stances on key issues. UC’s wage offers have increased by 3% since the start of bargaining.
“In a time of potentially catastrophic state and federal funding cuts, we have increased our last best and final offer to support UC’s workforce,” Matella added. “We hope to finalize this agreement and collaboratively address other important matters, like the reduction of federal and state support.”
AFSCME represents 37,485 UC employees across the system, including a presence at the system’s 10 universities, six academic health centers and one national laboratory. About 70% of the UC employees represented by AFSCME are in the Patient Care Technical bargaining unit, which provides patient care-adjacent functions, and the remaining employees provide essential custodial, transportation and related support services throughout the UC system.
Additional information including a fact sheet can be found at labor.universityofcalifornia.edu