making demands that the school cannot afford and asking for things that no other university offers a mediator was brought in on friday which shobowale said has helped the negotiations more university of california reaches agreement on wages with 2 of 3 worker groups on strike shobowale said the university is working hard to get a deal done but the union is not reacting with a sense of urgency he said that the union is sometimes coming to the table in a largely performative manner with as many as 700 members having attended some bargaining sessions huang pushed back against those claims and said the matter was urgent for union members especially after the university said it would cut off pay union teams were up late monday and tuesday to give the university a counterproposal and availability for bargaining this week has depended largely on the federal mediators schedule huang said huang also said the union submitted a counterproposal to the universitys proposal by the deadline and is waiting to hear back the unions initial request would have added 1 billion in compensation over five years but the schools annual budget is only 460 million the school said this would have been unattainable over five years and the university wouldnt have been able to continue existing as it is according to shobowale we are continuing to do everything possible to reach an agreement as quickly as possible on a contract that is fair equitable and financially responsible the unions contract demands continue to reflect the unions desire that the university spend money that the university simply does not have the new school told abc news in a statement agreeing to the unions demands will grow the university deficit and likely force the university to make drastic cuts to university offerings and substantially increase tuition the new school added