Tentative agreement averts strike throughout the University of California system

The union representing thousands of University of California medical and service workers has reached a tentative labor agreement with the university system and averted a strike that had threatened to disrupt care at five medical centers and 10 campuses.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that about 40,000 members of AFSCME Local 3299 had been set to walk out in a labor dispute centered on pay and housing benefits. Among those prepared to strike were radiology, lab and ultrasound technicians, respiratory and mental health therapists and nurses’ aides, as well as campus custodians, groundskeepers, security guards and food workers.

The tentative agreement will go before union members this week for a ratification vote this week.

Neither side released details of the proposal. But union leaders say it gives workers “their largest wage increase ever.”