Some 15,000 patient care technical workers at the University of California will begin a three-day strike Tuesday, Oct. 23 to protest the university’s practice of outsourcing jobs to contract companies.

Workers represented by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 3299 say the pay for contract workers is less with fewer or no benefits. The action comes just months after UC’s 10,000 service workers staged a three-day walkout in May over what it described as growing income, racial, and gender disparities within the university’s workforce. Some 53,000 UC workers walked off the job.