Ryan King, a spokesperson for the UC system, said school administrators have listened to the unions’ priorities, provided fair responses and shown “a genuine willingness to compromise.” “Our primary goal in these negotiations is achieving multiyear agreements that recognize these employees’ important and highly valued contributions to the University’s teaching and research mission with fair pay, quality health and family-friendly benefits, and a supportive and respectful work environment,” King said in a statement.We’re inspired by other struggles at Starbucks and Amazon, and we hope our struggle will be inspiring to others as well.” The university system has offered pay increases ranging from 4 percent to 7 percent in the first year of the contract, with smaller subsequent raises.University leadership maintains that “providing fair and competitive pay to all employees is a UC priority and essential to ensuring the excellence of our workforce and the quality of our service to students and the public,” UC administrators said in a press release.The increased militancy around cost-of-living demands at the UC system follows a wave of unauthorized “wildcat” strikes that broke out at UC Santa Cruz and spread across a number of UC campuses in 2021.Jacob Kemner, a doctorate student in environmental studies at UC Riverside, makes roughly $28,000 a year and donates blood plasma twice a week for roughly $200 in extra income."