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Thank you for Supporting

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Despite UC’s status as California’s largest landlord and third biggest employer, its millionaire executives are refusing to keep up with the cost of living and skyrocketing housing prices for its low-wage workforce. These poor decisions have created poverty and a deep affordability crisis that hurts workers and threatens the institution’s reputation and future funding. 

 

Those of us who love UC—its alumni, students, patients and community members—are urging its leadership to take action before it’s too late.

UC Executives Have LOST Their Way

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Since 2016, UC executives received real WAGE INCREASES averaging 

+52%

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While real wages for many UC workers have FALLEN by

-7%

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56% of UC service workers now qualify for public housing and 76% can’t afford a one-bedroom apartment near where they work.*

*Assumes one-person household near their UC work location.

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Be a UC HERO

You can MAKE A DIFFERENCE

As alumni, students and patients, we care deeply about UC, and we want every member of the UC family to be treated with dignity and respect. None of us want UC to become just another big corporation that engages in a race to the bottom and lowers standards for our communities. There is no acceptable reason for the creation of a permanent underclass and poverty-level conditions for nearly 40,000 workers across UC’s campuses and hospitals, and we’re taking action to stop it.

JOIN US!

If UC Has These RESOURCES…

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$10 billion

in unrestricted reserves

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Revenues doubled

over 10 years

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8 hospitals purchased

since 2023

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And the MONEY TO PAY Top Executives This…

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UCLA
Health CEO

$2.2
MILLION

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UCSF
Health CEO

$2.1
MILLION

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UCSD
Health CEO

$1.5
MILLION

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UC
President

$1.5
MILLION

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UCSF
Chancellor

$1.2
MILLION

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UCSD
Chancellor

$1.2
MILLION

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UCLA
Chancellor

$1.0
MILLION

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UC Berkeley
Chancellor

$1.0
MILLION

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Then Workers Should Be Able to AFFORD a Place to Live 

Show Your Support

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I Support UC’s Service
& Patient Care Workers

I believe UC has a responsibility to end poverty for its full-time workforce, keep up with the cost of living, ensure that its employees can afford a place to live, and adequately staff its facilities to protect services for the students and patients it serves. I urge UC executives to reach a fair contract with its workers that will raise standards and protect good jobs for all of our communities.

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How does UC’s poverty and housing crisis affect students and patients?

 

UC’s decision to let the real wages of many frontline workers fall by 7% over the past nine years has created a poverty underclass and a deep affordability crisis that has forced many workers to seek employment elsewhere. Because of the pandemic, the vacancy rate for frontline workers tripled and more than 13,000 service and patient care technicians left their jobs. Staffing levels never recovered. The result is chronic short staffing, which impacts services to students and patients alike.

 

Students also struggle with many of the same issues that frontline workers face with 44% of UC students suffering from food or housing insecurity.
 

How can UC address its housing crisis?

 

There are several paths that UC could pursue to make housing more affordable for its lowest wage employees: 1) it could raise wages closer to the California housing wage so frontline workers could afford a one-bedroom home near where they work; 2) it could expand pilot programs like the one at UC Davis that assists frontline workers with housing; 3) it could utilize some of the empty parcels of land in its possession for the construction of affordable housing; and 4) it could make low-interest home loans available to frontline workers — not just those at the very top. Last year alone, UC gave out $500 million in low-interest home loans to its executives and highest paid employees. 

 

If UC wants to lead, these are just a few of the solutions that it could pursue as the largest landlord and third largest employer in the fourth biggest economy in the entire world.
 

Can UC afford to end poverty among its workforce under the current administration?

 

While we disagree with President Trump’s attacks on universities, the poverty and housing crisis that UC has created has nothing to do with the current Trump administration. For the past nine years, UC prioritized executive salaries and expansion as it chose to leave frontline workers behind. The university is currently sitting on $10 billion in unrestricted reserves, which was built on the backs of its workers. These resources can and should be used to deliver more affordable housing solutions and end the deep affordability crisis facing its low-wage workforce. 

Alumni & Community
Supporters

Sign the petition

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