This post was updated Feb. 28 at 1:05 a.m.

The Daily Bruin covers breaking news events as they happen. This page will cover the latest from the February 2025 strikes and will provide the most important updates in a summary of the strike as it happens. Information on this page will be added and removed periodically to reflect the current status of the strike.

More than a thousand striking union members marched across campus Wednesday and Thursday, limiting student dining and custodial services.

The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, which represents service, patient care and skilled craft workers, and the University Professional and Technical Employees-Communications Workers of America 9119, which represents researchers and technical workers, began striking across the UC on Wednesday morning. Both unions have alleged that the UC refused to bargain in good faith during contract negotiations and implemented restrictive speech policies.

Neither union has reached a contract agreement with the University, despite AFSCME Local 3299 and UPTE-CWA 9119 beginning negotiations in January and June 2024, respectively. 

[Related: LIVE: February 2025 union strikes]

AFSCME Local 3299 claimed that its workers are facing an “affordability crisis,” which the UC has failed to address in its bargaining proposals. Jacob Creer, a clinical equipment specialist at UCLA and member of the AFSCME Local 3299 bargaining team, said members of his union often live hours from their work locations as they are unable to keep up with the cost of living near UC campuses.

“We have members who talk about their stories of sleeping in cars, talking about how they have to live in Tijuana and come over, in the case of UC San Diego. We have members from all kinds of different campuses, (such as UC) Merced, talking about their struggle where their shoes are falling apart,” he said. “UC refuses to meet us at every single demand.”

Luz Lopes, who has worked as a janitor for 20 years, said Thursday that she joined the picket line to advocate for better pay. 

“I’m here because I need more money for my house, for my family,” Lopes said. “My husband has diabetes and he needs medicine every month, and the cost is expensive.”

UPTE-CWA 9119 members are also striking over an alleged vacancy crisis. Maryam Azizadah, an assistant clinical research coordinator working on oncology trials, said she has long seen the effects of understaffing at the UC – from being unable to book mental health appointments during her undergraduate education at UC Riverside to seeing her sister having visits pushed back while being treated for cancer at UCLA.

Nicole McLurkin, a health care worker in nuclear medicine at UC Irvine who picketed at UCLA on Thursday, also said the UC’s alleged bad-faith bargaining has impacted staffing shortages in imaging services.

“There’s been times where I scan patients by myself, and what does that entail? That’s someone left alone on a scanner while I’m taking care of another patient,” she said. “Patient safety has been jeopardized, and currently, right now that we’re out striking, patients who need critical services like PET scans – they’re not being done because we have to be out here fighting for our wages.”

Azizadah added that she believes the UC has not taken these claims seriously.

“The University is labeling us as lazy, that we always wanted to go on strike – but really, we have seen so much suffering from the people we’re trying to provide services to,” she said. “That was the last straw.”

Over a thousand members of both unions marched down Westwood Boulevard several times Wednesday and chanted “Who runs UC? We run UC.” Demonstrators protested as far away as Wilshire Boulevard, at times blocking both directions of traffic. 

UCPD announced it will be monitoring the labor strikes until Friday. The Bruins Safe Online website will have updates on the ongoing situation and will announce if any campus operations will be affected.

However, union members allowed a fire truck to pass through an area of Westwood Plaza without interruption Wednesday. Police also blocked off the left side of Westwood Plaza on Wednesday south of Le Conte Avenue, preventing other vehicles from entering, but reopened the area around 10:20 a.m.

Union members chanted “Whose university? Our university!” as they marched up Bruin Walk on Wednesday and Thursday. Demonstrators also picketed in Dickson Court, chanting, “UC, UC, you can’t hide, we can see your greedy side,” while ringing cowbells and holding signs.

Hundreds of union members also chanted “When we fight, we win” outside the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where members of United Farm Workers and the California Nurses Association joined the striking unions.

Union members also handed out food on campus, both to members and students protesting in solidarity with the strike.

Demonstrators gathered on the UCLA campus as early as 4:30 a.m. Thursday, said Genevieve Ortiz, a staffer for AFSCME Local 3299. Hundreds of union members had arrived in Bruin Plaza as of 7:05 a.m. with tents, food and coffee.

Around 1,000 AFSCME Local 3299 and UPTE-CWA 9119 members joined in a large crowd around 9 a.m., marching from Bruin Walk and along Portola Plaza toward south campus. Demonstrators blocked an intersection off of Charles E. Young Drive and Westholme Avenue as they marched from south campus toward Dickson Court.

Union members picketed across the UCLA campus and outside the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center throughout the day.

More than 100 members of AFSCME Local 3299 also picketed outside of the UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center on Thursday from around 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oralia Palma, a medical assistant at UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center, said she joined the strike because rising insurance rates have made it difficult for her to treat her lupus.

Maria Torres, a surgical technologist at the UCLA Santa Monica Medical Center, also said she found it difficult to continue working for UCLA – despite having 19 years of experience there – because of a lack of respect and appreciation.

“We just want things to be fair for us,” she said. “Without all of these people in different services, the hospital can’t operate. It takes much more than just surgeons, doctors and nurses to operate such a big, big corporation.”

Only three dining halls – De Neve Residential Restaurant, Epicuria at Covel and Feast at Rieber – are open on the Hill on Wednesday and Thursday due to work shortages caused by the strike. Feast and Epicuria are allowing students to choose whether they want to eat in a take-out or dine-in format.

Anjelica Fletes, a first-year psychology student, said Wednesday that she waited around seven minutes with 20 people in front of her in line for lunch at Feast at Rieber. Fletes said although she supports the demands of those striking, she added that she believes wait times will get worse as more students return to the Hill.

Zahraa Al Shuebar, a second-year applied mathematics student, also said she was satisfied with the short wait time for her Feast at Rieber take-out lunch. She added that she thought the dining hall was prepared for a big crowd of students. 

“I’ve been in dining halls at regular times and the lines have been longer,” she said. “They’re pushing it out very fast.”

However, around 11:15 a.m. Thursday, roughly 100 students waited in line at Feast at Rieber. Jennifer Yamashita, a first-year mathematics of computation student waiting in line, said the wait was justified.

“They deserve better pay and benefits,” she said.

Contributing reports by Savan Bollu, Reese Dahlgren, Anna Dai-Liu, Anthony Folsom II, Gabrielle Gillette, Anna Gu, Micah Hoffman, Maggie Konecky, Leilani Krantz, Sarah Soroosh Moghadam, Alexis Muchnik, Sam Mulick, Josephine Murphy, Shiv Patel, Warren Riley, Shaun Thomas, Lauren Trautenberg, Prannay Veerabahu, Amanda Velasco, Dylan Winward and Patrick Woodham, Daily Bruin staff.