University of California service workers at all nine UC campuses and five medical centers, including UCLA and the UCLA Medical Center, are participating in a day-long strike on Thursday to voice their desire for higher wages, better training and more opportunities for promotion. The workers have been working without a contract since 2004.

The action comes after more than eight months of failed negotiations between UC officials and leaders of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, which represents the more than 7,300 workers involved in the strike. Many issues are in play, including demands by workers for better pay and health care coverage.

The workers are mostly in service jobs, including bus drivers, housekeepers, parking lot attendants, security guards, janitors, nutritionists and groundskeepers who say they are getting paid at poverty level. They want a contract that would expire Sept. 30, 2007, with pay hikes retroactive to June 30, 2004, when the prior three-year pact expired.

The strike was authorized on March 16. At UCLA, 2,500 union members are affected. The strike is supported by the University of California Student Association, the system-wide association of campus student governments.