On August 28-29, the University of California and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees met with mediators selected by the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), which oversees the two-day mediation sessions. Each party presented its position to a neutral mediator during the mediation. However, the mediation ended unexpectedly on August 29th after it was canceled by PERB.

The mediation was ordered after AFSCME declared an impasse on contract negotiations in July; the University did not oppose the declaration and had hoped the mediation would produce consensus for the two new contracts. While 15 days of mediation are allotted as part of the impasse resolution attempt, PERB called off mediation on August 29th, a day and a half after convening, sooner than UC anticipated. Because mediation sessions are confidential, the parties may not provide more detailed information.

Since January 2024, the University of California has regularly met with leadership from the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union to negotiate new contracts for you and your colleagues. UC has negotiated in good faith and offered proposals that respond to stated union priorities. In more than five months of bi-monthly bargaining, UC has submitted 26 proposals and 36 counterproposals, while AFSCME has made 42 proposals and three counterproposals. On July 24, AFSCME declared that it believed negotiations were at an impasse.

The University introduced wage proposals in February and counterproposals in July, which include a 5 percent across-the-board increase in 2025 and increasing the minimum wage for AFSCME employees to $25 an hour by July 1, 2025. The proposals support our valued employees and directly meet AFSCME’s $25/5 percent wage demands. AFSCME passed 42 proposals early in bargaining but has not passed a proposal since May and has only provided three counterproposals to UC’s proposals.

Now that the mediation meetings have concluded without a satisfactory result, UC and AFSCME will move to the next step in the impasse process, called fact-finding, in which PERB appoints a neutral party to chair a three-person fact-finding panel. In fact-finding, the panel will meet with the parties or their representatives to consider their respective positions. We will continue to inform you of where negotiations stand as we move through the impasse process.