Angie Ayala, a pharmacy technician at Ralph’s Fare Fresh in Pasadena, drives in from her Hollywood apartment for a five-day-a-week job that pays $24.10 hourly.
She and her husband are raising two daughters, 10 and 6, in a one-bedroom apartment.
Not long ago, Ayala bought an upright piano and pushed it under the steps that lead to her upper floor apartment. She’d like to get paid more so that she can hire a piano teacher for her oldest daughter — maybe even save to buy a home. But her budget is too tight, and there’s pressure at work.
“It’s a stressful job when the pharmacy is understaffed,” Ayala said. “We fill between 125 and 150 prescriptions a day, make calls to doctors and nurses and insurance — doing two or three things at once,” Ayala said. “There’s a lot more work, especially if you have to deal with vaccine appointments.”
Ayala is among nearly 200,000 union members across California involved in picketing or striking for better pay and benefits, according to estimates provided by union leaders. In the case of Ayala, her union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, is locked in heated talks with major grocery chains in Southern California over an overdue, three-year contract for 65,000 unionized workers. They’ve worked without a contract since March 2.
Union leaders are taking note of this year’s surge in activity — more than any they’ve seen in decades.
Randy Korgan, the Teamsters national director in charge of organizing Amazon, said he’s been an organizer for more than 30 years but hasn’t ever seen this level of “militancy or frustration.” He said workers can’t afford to buy a home in the community where they work with Amazon, but yet the online retailer is charging more for products and services while “paying less for labor and devaluing the jobs.”
Kent Wong, the project director for Labor and Community Partnerships and former director at the UCLA Labor Center, said he also is seeing a rise in union activity.
“We are seeing the level of activism in California more pronounced, in large part because we have larger and more robust unions,” Wong said. “Part of the problem relates to horrendous targeting and victimization of immigrant workers. They are a critical part of the California workforce, and this whole notion that you can develop policies of mass deportation without a negative impact on agricultural, manufacturing or service sectors, is not possible. These policies are counterproductive.”
Here are brief descriptions of major labor negotiations underway in California:
The UC system
More than 57,000 University of California employees represented by two labor unions have sporadically been calling for one-day strikes at research labs and medical facilities across the 10-campus system since last fall.
The 20,000 workers represented by the University Professional and Technical Employees – CWA Local 9119, include physician assistants, optometrists, pharmacists, RN case managers, rehabilitation specialists, mental health clinicians, clinical lab scientists, staff research associates and IT analysts. The union wants UC to address its allegations of staffing shortages and eroding patient care at UC campuses, hospitals, laboratories and with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The 37,000 members of Local 3299 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, include groundskeepers, custodians, MRI technologists and respiratory therapists.
“UPTE has asked to continue bargaining with us and is tentatively scheduled to do so next month,” said UC spokeswoman Heather Hansen in a statement. “We remain open to working with AFSCME to reach a contractual agreement.” UC has offered a proposal to give workers a 5% across-the-board pay increase starting July 1, 2025, and a 3% increase for the second and third years.
Liz Perlman, executive director of AFSCME Local 3299, said that the staff vacancy rate at UC has tripled since before the pandemic, and real wages and a growing housing affordability crisis plagues the university’s frontline workforce.
“I think things are so damn expensive in California,” Perlman said. “There’s this massive wealth inequality and affordability crisis. We’re not seeing strike activity in Iowa. There just aren’t the same pressures.”
What’s next: “The ball is in the university’s court to address these issues,” Perlman said. Since April, UC representatives have refused to acknowledge an offer submitted by the unions to settle the labor dispute.
The supermarkets
On May 14, labor talks resumed after a month-long pause between the UFCW union and Albertsons Cos., which also owns Vons and Pavilions, and Ralphs, the largest supermarket unit of Kroger Co.
A handful of sessions have been held separately with San Bernardino-based Stater Bros. Markets. In total, seven UFCW local unions from Santa Barbara to San Diego are working on new three-year UFCW labor contracts with the supermarket chains. Details on what the unions want from the grocery chains are pending, but UFCW Local 3234 President Andrea Zinder said that food workers are seeking better pay and benefits.
The pace of their talks was briefly disrupted in late March when the federal mediator assigned to their negotiations was fired by the Trump administration.
The unionized supermarkets include, Albertsons, Ralphs, Stater, Encino-based Gelson’s Markets and Super A Foods, a family-owned supermarket chain based in Commerce that caters to Latino and Asian shoppers in the Los Angeles area.
Gelson’s and Super A Foods have historically gone along with the labor contracts negotiated by Albertsons, Ralphs and Stater Bros.
What’s next: The UFCW locals should release the results of strike authorization voting on Wednesday, June 11. More pickets are planned at a handful of supermarkets. A rally June 20 will take place at an unspecified supermarket location in Long Beach with the next bargaining dates between UFCW and grocery representatives scheduled June 10, 11, 25, 26 and 27, according to UFCW Local 324 spokeswoman Jenna Thompson.
Amazon
A week before Christmas, thousands of Teamsters walked off their jobs for a day, affecting distribution and fulfillment hubs in the City of Industry, Palmdale and Victorville. The Teamsters drivers, who work for “third party contractors,” also walked off their jobs in San Francisco, Atlanta, New York City and Skokie, Illinois.
Teamsters are actively organizing Amazon workers across the U.S., aiming to secure a union contract that guarantees fair pay, safe working conditions, and manageable workloads. The union has been pushing for recognition from Amazon and a negotiated contract. Amazon employs more than 30,000 employees across its logistics network in the Inland Empire.
Amazon spokesman Eileen Hards explained that the “delivery service partners” manage personnel issues. “These are not our employees.”
What’s next: Korgan told SCNG that the Teamsters got a boost in their nationwide organizing efforts in April. That’s when a complaint was issued by Jill Coffman, regional director of the NLRB in San Francisco, who wrote that Amazon is obligated to collectively bargain with warehouse workers at its San Francisco delivery station after a majority of employees signed union authorization cards.
“If Amazon ignores the election outcome, ignores the bargaining order, ignores what workers are doing, ignores the First Amendment, then tries to argue that all of it is unconstitutional, it tells me the only thing we can do is to shut them down and stop their operation,” Korgan said. “That’s what workers did in December. It’s the only thing that is going to catch this employer’s attention.”
Hards said that Coffman’s complaint is predicated on “a baseless legal theory which undermines employee rights, disregards decades of NLRB practice, and ignores Supreme Court precedent.”
She also said that the NLRB complaint is “completely without merit, and we look forward to establishing that through the legal process.”
Rideshare Drivers United
Earlier this year, rideshare drivers picketed in downtown Los Angeles to pressure City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto and other city attorneys in California — as well as state Attorney General Rob Bonta and California Labor Commissioner Lilia Garcia-Brower — to move quickly to resolve back pay claims and damages from rideshare companies Uber and Lyft in a wage theft case dating back nearly a decade.
More than 250,000 drivers who worked for Lyft and Uber from 2016-2020 could receive as much as $1.3 billion in backpay — about half of which is for damages.
Mediation sessions have stalled after two meetings in March and May. If no settlement is reached, the state’s labor department said the matter could get settled in court in 2026, according to the labor commissioner’s website.
What’s next: Backed by the Service Employees International Union, Oakland Assemblymember Buffy Wicks introduced Assembly Bill 1340 that would allow ridesharing drivers to bargain for better pay and benefits and provide more protections for gig workers. SEIU said more than 600,000 rideshare drivers statewide would benefit if the legislation is adopted and signed into law.
“Californians are already feeling the squeeze—and this proposal would drive up rideshare costs even more while threatening the flexible jobs thousands depend on.” said Uber spokesman Zahid Arab in a statement. A Lyft spokesman was unavailable for comment.
In late June, the Rideshare group plans to issue a report on “algorithmic wage discrimination and tech overreach,” a Rideshare Drivers United spokesman said.
Los Angeles County
About 55,000 Los Angeles County workers represented by SEIU 721 have been working without a contract since March 31. Negotiations have focused on the county’s alleged refusal to bargain in good faith, contracting jobs and proposed wage freezes or cuts.
The county government says it faces unprecedented fiscal challenges, including a $4 billion settlement of thousands of sex assault claims, $2 billion in impacts from January’s wildfires and “the potentially catastrophic loss of hundreds of millions or more in federal funding.”
County Chief Executive Officer Fesia Davenport recently released her budget proposal for the 2025-26 fiscal year, including 3% cuts to some departments and the elimination of more than 200 vacant positions.
What’s next: “We are continuing to meet with county management,” said SEIU Local 721 spokesman Alec White. “Bargaining is continuing.”
The county offered the union a “substantial” one-time bonus of $5,000 this year, a 2% raise and $2,000 bonus in year two and a 5% raise in year three of the proposed contract, according to a statement issued by Los Angeles County’s Chief Executive Office to SCNG.
“It would not be appropriate to discuss any specific contract proposals beyond what we have already shared, but we want to reiterate that Los Angeles County values our partnership with labor and recognizes the essential role that our employees play in serving the public,” the statement said. “Unfortunately, there are just not enough available resources to offer the cost of living increases that SEIU 721 has formally proposed — especially as we face profound financial stresses on many fronts. We are unable to move beyond this offer given the shortage of available resources, and in fact, we will need to make significant cuts in order to afford it.”
UPS
In April, UPS threatened to slash 20,000 jobs and close 73 facilities by the end of June as it drastically reduces the amount of Amazon shipments it handles. UPS operates distribution facilities in California, including in La Mirada. A major hub is in Ontario, which is one of the largest on the West Coast.
What’s next: Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said that UPS is obligated to create 30,000 Teamsters jobs under a five-year national agreement that expires in 2028. That labor contract, which was ratified in August 2023, included significant wage increases, improved safety measures, and the elimination of a two-tier wage system.
“If UPS wants to continue to downsize corporate management, the Teamsters won’t stand in its way,” O’Brien said in a statement. “But if the company intends to violate our contract or makes any attempt to go after hard-fought, good-paying Teamsters jobs, UPS will be in for a hell of a fight.”
A UPS spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Settled contracts
Kaiser Permanente: After going on strike late last year, the National Union of Healthcare Workers recently ratified a new three-year contract with better pay and benefits, according to NUHW spokesman Matthew Artz. The deal covers nearly 2,400 Kaiser Permanente mental health therapists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and psychologists.
Keurig Dr Pepper: More than 250 Teamsters at the Keurig Dr Pepper beverage plant in Victorville won a three-year contract on May 22. In early May, the Teamsters extended the strike to cover 700 workers at other unionized Keurig Dr Pepper plants in Orange; Vernon, Riverside, San Fernando, Thousand Palms and Ventura. The Victorville workers won “significant wage increases” and “a guaranteed defined pension plan,” said Teamsters spokesman Christian Castro.
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