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Union workers at Stanford University voted on Wednesday, Aug. 21, and Thursday, Aug. 22, to authorize a possible strike after being locked in contract negotiations with the university for several months. The union’s strike authorization vote comes amid efforts to secure wage increases, better health benefits and other contract improvements from Stanford.
The workers are members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2007, which represents approximately 1,360 employees at Stanford, including people working as custodians, maintenance workers, groundskeepers, life science technicians and accelerator technologists. In addition to employees at the university itself, the union represents workers at the Stanford National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) in Menlo Park and the Stanford School of Medicine.
“From the beginning of negotiation … we’ve been unhappy with the way (Stanford) has approached the negotiations and the things they’ve offered,” said Richard Patrone, SEIU Local 2007’s co-chief negotiator.
According to Patrone, 95% of the SEIU members who voted, voted in favor of the strike.
SEIU Local 2007 and Stanford began negotiations on May 28, according to a statement on the negotiations from Stanford. As of Aug. 20, the two parties had reached 26 tentative agreements.
The term of the union’s current collective bargaining agreement, which has been in place since 2019, ends on Aug. 31.
With just nine days to go until the contract expires, the union alleges that Stanford has not been engaging in good faith negotiations.
“We felt in the beginning … that they just were not meeting often enough,” said Patrone. “We kept asking them for more dates, and they kept refusing.”
According to a statement from Stanford, the two negotiation teams had met 21 times as of Aug. 16, but Patrone says that “it’s not as much as we thought was necessary.”
“The university is disappointed to learn that the union has decided to take a strike authorization vote 10 days before the contract expires while both the university and the union continue to negotiate,” said a spokesperson for Stanford in an email to this news organization.
“We are disappointed in Stanford’s disappointment,” said Patrone. “We feel that they have not been forthcoming in solving the labor issues here.”
In addition to calling for a strike authorization vote, the SEIU Local 2007 has filed unfair labor practices charges against Stanford with the National Labor Relations Board, according to Patrone.
The union and the university are far apart on wage increases, health benefits and other issues. Patrone says that when the union’s previous five-year contract was negotiated, inflation was at an “historic low,” but that current inflation rates have union members “falling so far behind.”
“They want a five-year contract, we want a three-year contract,” said Patrone. “But their (first proposal for a) five-year contract started at a 3% (raise) for five years, which would not even catch us up to what we experienced due to inflation for the last three years. We’re underwater right from the beginning, and we’re not going to get out from being underwater.”
Stanford’s most recent package proposal that it presented to union negotiators as of Aug. 20 would give union members a 4% wage increase in the first year of the contract, 3% increases for the two subsequent years and 3.25% increases for the two years after that. It would also give members a signing bonus of $1,000 if an agreement is reached by the Aug. 31 contract expiration date, and increase the minimum household income to qualify for the university’s Medical Contribution Assistance Program from $100,000 to $120,000.
“We believe the university’s latest package proposal represents a fair offer, however, we will continue working with the union to reach agreement on a new contract by August 31,” said Stanford in a statement on Aug. 20.
Both the union and the university say they intend to negotiate right up until the end of the contract.
“We are very open to negotiating as long as Stanford is giving us something that we feel is reasonable, and we will continue to negotiate in good faith right through the end of the contract,” said Patrone.
A spokesperson for Stanford said in an email to this news organization that the university remains “committed to the bargaining process and will continue to work with the Union to reach a full agreement prior to the contract expiration.”
Health benefits are another sticking point for the union, said Patrone.
“Their benefit plan is completely unaffordable for our members. The only realistic choice that people have is Kaiser, and Kaiser went up 10% this year and is expected to go up 11% next year, and we just can’t afford it anymore,” he said.
He also said that the high cost of health insurance has prevented several union members from retiring. “I know several people who would like to retire, or were already retired and had to cancel their retirement because they couldn’t afford health insurance.”
Ironically, Stanford’s own health care is unaffordable for many of the SEIU members, including those who work at the medical school, as it is “more than twice as expensive as Kaiser,” according to Patrone.
“I think virtually none, maybe 1% of our membership can afford Stanford’s healthcare,” he said. “Stanford Health Care Alliance, which is the Stanford Hospital and doctors, has been priced out of our members’ reach. … We can’t even use Stanford doctors.”
According to Stanford’s 2024 comparison of available medical plans, an employee would have to pay $510 monthly for a Kaiser plan that covers the employee and their family, or $1,040 for a Stanford Health Care Alliance plan that covers them and their family.
An individual employee wouldn’t have to pay anything monthly for a Kaiser plan, but would have to pay $125 monthly for the Stanford Health Care Alliance plan.
Patrone says that SEIU is not the only union that is having difficulties bargaining with Stanford. There’s another union on campus, the Grad Students Union (SGWU), who are also negotiating with Stanford, and Stanford is also offering that group “very low wage increase and very high health insurance costs.”
The union’s current contract with Stanford has a no strike provision, saying “neither the union nor any of the workers will engage in or participate, directly or indirectly, in any strike, picketing, slow-down, sick-in, stoppage or any other interference with or interruption of work or operations during the term of this agreement.”
However, if no agreement is reached before the contract lapses, the union will be able to strike.
“It could be the day after the contract runs out,” said Patrone.
SEIU Local 2007’s strike authorization vote does not necessarily mean that the union will strike, but it gives negotiators the option to call a strike if they deem it necessary. According to Patrone, the union would prefer not to strike.
“We certainly don’t want to strike — a strike is not good for either party,” he said. “But at this point, we’re just not making any significant progress. I mean, there’s been some movement on Stanford’s part, but not enough for people to make a living and to pay their rent and to pay for food and to pay for their exorbitantly high medical expenses.”
