Allen Villanueva sat at the top of a hill of artificial grass in San Francisco with his shih tzu, Gio, looking down at the plaza outside UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Mission Bay.

Hundreds of his fellow medical center workers had begun picketing and the longtime member of the University Professional and Technical Employees, Communications Workers of America Local 9119 union contemplated what he would say to them.

Villanueva has been a clinical research animal technician at UC San Francisco for 32 years, and a member of UPTE-9119 for just as long. He is one of more than 50,000 University of California health workers, lab technicians, mental health counselors, researchers, educators, IT specialists, and patient care and service laborers who launched a multiday statewide strike this week.

While continuing to advocate for conditions demanded during a November strike, including higher wages and raises, two unions are now railing against what they say are unconstitutional free speech restrictions surrounding their collective bargaining.

The strike froze core functions — including appointment scheduling, prescription fulfillment and mental health care services — across UC campuses and affiliated clinical facilities even as emergency services continued. The strike also meant stalled research in fields like cancer, climate change and epidemiology.

Also among the strikers were workers at UC Davis’s California Animal Health and Food Safety Lab. The facility is the only one in the state with the federal biosecurity clearance to handle and track the most dangerous samples of highly pathogenic avian influenza.Nearly 20,000 employees across the UC system are members of UPTE-9119; 98% of them voted to proceed with their largest strike ever, according to the union, with the strike expected to last through Friday.

Some 37,000 more UC workers are represented by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees 3299. The union staged a strike through Thursday.

In a statement, the University of California said both unions were “amplifying misinformation” with protests after failing to negotiate in good faith.

UPTE-9119 president Dan Russell, attending the rally at UCSF-Mission Bay, said in a text that assertion was “patently false,” and that UC was not serious about discussing workers’ priorities.

At the top of those priorities, according to the unions, is defending First Amendment rights.

In January, UPTE-9119 submitted a 490-page unfair practice charge to the state’s Public Employment Relations Board. Among other grievances, the document reported bans at UCSF and UC Davis against handing out leaflets within 50 feet of a university doorway. APSCME-3299 filed its own charges to PERB last year.

Heather Hansen, a spokesperson for the UC Office of the President, said UC has “clear authority to set reasonable rules for our property, including when, where and how people express themselves.”

Hansen also cited Senate Bill 108, signed into law last year to enforce “safety and access to educational opportunities and campus spaces and buildings.”

At UCSF-Mission Bay, Villanueva said he was losing sleep over fears of employer retaliation.

He said he developed a protrusion in his left palm diagnosed as lipoma — a noncancerous tumor of fat cells irritated by repetitive tasks, such as pulling hundreds of shoebox-sized cages of lab rodents out of shelves daily. He said he needs surgery to correct the problem.

“I want to bring up awareness for people in power to be kind — people are going through things,” he said.

Liz Perlman, executive director of AFSCME-3299, said her union’s employees work side by side with UPTE-9119’s but that her members include the lowest-paid patient care workers in the UC system.

“Our folks are the ones who cook food, clean patient rooms, provide patient security and transportation, X-rays, ultrasounds and cancer treatments,” she said.

UC maintains that a recruitment and retention problem does not exist, but Perlman spoke of a “massive exodus” of employees who have disappeared from payrolls since the coronavirus pandemic. She said this was hastened by pay that has lagged behind inflation and high costs of living.

When Kayla Dollar began working for the UC Davis CAHFS lab in 2022, she said she joined a full staff that already had plenty to do.

Then came bird flu.

“We were getting an increasing number of samples, and we weren’t getting an increasing numbers of technicians,” she said.

After a couple of veteran colleagues left the team, Dollar sought to fill the gap by advancing from lab assistant to technician.

“It wasn’t that I was reaching for the stars — I wasn’t underqualified. I could have been utilized when they needed help and I was not,” Dollar said.

Last May, Dollar took a technician position at the university’s Veterinary Genetics Laboratory. She no longer works with bacteria or live viruses, but uses more of the skills she once sought to contribute to CAHFS.

“And now, I can take a sick day without feeling like I’m making other people’s lives harder,” she said. The price of improved conditions, she said, is guilt for leaving behind teammates who remain steeped in the pressure cooker environment of the bird flu epidemic.

“The UC has tremendous resources — $20 billion in reserves. They should be allowing and supporting research as we face federal attacks,” said Amy Fletcher, who has been a researcher at the Department of Food, Science, and Technology at UC Davis for nine years. She joined UPTE-9119’s bargaining team and leadership in 2019.

Various UC financial reports speak to these billions in reserves and investments. UC also acquired multiple hospitals in the past year, including two in San Francisco. Finally, top executives received hefty raises. UCSF Chancellor Sam Hawgood’s 16.6% salary bump and cost-of-living adjustment raised his annual salary to $1,189,260.

Medical executives are among the highest-paid employees in the entire UC system — UCSF Health’s President and Chief Executive Officer Suresh Gunasekaran’s salary is $2.19 million. The CEO also received benefits from UC’s home loan program to purchase property in Pacific Heights.

The strike “is a short-term sacrifice to force the decision-makers at the university to do the right thing for patients and research,” said UPTE’s Russell. “I’m hoping they say let’s bargain for real. If they don’t, we can vote to have another strike.”

As of Thursday, neither union was aware of any UC plans to resume conversations.