Frustration has been building within the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, or AFSCME 3299, union among some of its UC-affiliated members after 24 months have passed since contract negotiations began. Members of AFSCME 3299 — the UC chapter representing about 40,000 service, patient care and skilled craft workers in the UC system — have taken to AFSCME 3299’s Instagram comments to voice frustration with the union’s efforts to secure a contract with the UC system. Members specifically pointed to its struggle to secure housing benefits, which some view as unimportant relative to securing raises and insurance. AFSCME member Hector Arrellano is a distribution technician at the UC Irvine Health Fountain Valley hospital, where he has been working for the past nine years. He mentioned that the $25,000 housing fund proposal from AFSCME 3299 is not a realistic amount of aid against rising mortgage rates,and that their most recent two-day strike had not “...