25,000 University of California workers striking to protest job outsourcing

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A one-day labor strike is happening on Wednesday where thousands of University of California workers in service and patient care technical fields are protesting unfair labor practices.

The UC workers across all 10 UC campuses and five hospitals want to address the university system's job outsourcing practices. The workers say union leaders are outsourcing jobs normally performed by UC employees to lower wage private contractors and are spreading false information about their practices.

"By secretly working to expand outsourcing of service and patient care jobs, the University of California is unilaterally imposing lower wages, more inequality, and more risk of employer abuse against its most vulnerable workers-mostly women and people of color," says Coordinator Monica De Leon. "This is not just morally bankrupt, unfair and unsafe for the students and patients who depend on the work we do-it is illegal. And we will not rest until this lawlessness stops."

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Local UC campuses that are joining the picket line starting at 8 a.m. include UCSF's Parnassus Medical Center and UC Berkeley.