Rosalba Montoya, a member of the AFSCME Local 3299 executive board and a medical assistant at UCLA, said that she is striking because she believes the University has broken the law by raising healthcare costs without negotiating with the union.

“We’re living paycheck to paycheck, barely making it with rent and food, and now we have to pay more for our healthcare,” she said. “I have to get my medication from outside of the country, because the price went up a lot.”