Mary Blocker-Williams, left, is the President of the AFSCME Local 1328. She is joined by Lindsay Stephens, a registered nurse and vice president of AFSCME Local 1781 during an Oct. 14, 2026 demonstration outside UF Health's campus in Brentwood. The two unions have accused UF Health Jacksonville of Unfair Labor Practices in a grievance filed with the National Labor Relations Board on Sept. 18 of this year. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on October 14, 2026 at 5:35 pm
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Underneath the shade of a green tree and blue skies, nearly two dozen members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union held green and blue signs demanding occupational respect from the UF Health Jacksonville healthcare system on Wednesday.
The health system declared negotiations were at an impasse this summer.
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On Sept. 18, the union filed an Unfair Labor Practice complaint with the National Labor Relations Board citing UF Health’s refusal to bargain. Wednesday, the AFSCME Local 1328 and Local 1781 went public with their dispute.
The Local 1781 is comprised of nurses, therapists and other patient-facing professionals. The Local 1328 is comprised of food service and support workers. Combined, the two unions represent more than 2,000 workers throughout the UF Health Jacksonville system.
Union leaders say the current contract between the unions and the health care system expires in 2027.
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Mary Blocker-Williams has been a member of the AFSCME Local 1328 for 23 years and its president since 2022. She invoked the late community organizer and activist Fannie Lou Hamer on Wednesday, when she said she was “sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
“With this negotiation -– I’ve been in a lot of negotiations because I was the executive vice president before I was the president -– all of the negotiations with UF Health, every last one of them, has lasted more than three days,” Blocker-Williams told Jacksonville Today. “The problem with this negotiation is we had three days. …They came back, after months of us being in delay and said, ‘OK, we’re at an impasse. That’s not how a fair negotiation is supposed to be.”
This is the first time either union has filed an Unfair Labor Practice grievance against UF Health Jacksonville in more than three decades of representation, AFSCME says.
UF Health responds
As union members gathered underneath an oak tree on 8th Street, UF Health Jacksonville shared a statement about the impasse.
“UF Health Jacksonville greatly appreciates the important contributions our team members make to providing exceptional compassionate care for our community. We are committed to providing competitive compensation and benefits and will continue to adhere to the collective bargaining agreement. In addition, we will continue to partner with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees on behalf of our valued employees.”
Low census, high stakes
Lindsay Stephens is a registered nurse who has been a part of the bargaining committee for the Local 1781 for two years. Wednesday, Stephens said union members often use their paid time off to backfill their pay when employees are sent home early when UF Health experiences low patient numbers. In nursing, that is described as “low census.”
With UF Health’s proposal of eliminating 40 hours of paid time off for union members around the holiday season, Stephens says that provides fewer opportunities to supplement their reduced hours.
“We’re the only hospital that used to have holiday pay, and that was a huge incentive for people to come and work for UF (Health),” Stephens said. “Now they’re taking it away. And if you do the calculations, if you are an employee that works three (12-hour shifts in a week), you will lose 40 hours of PTO per year.”
With the holiday season on the horizon, and UF Health’s paid-time-off change coming into effect on Dec. 19, union leaders say they are eager to negotiate.
“We need that to take care of our kids, to take care of our parents, our grandparents, our animals, everything,” Stephens says. “And you take that away, that hurts us.”
