UNAC/UHCP collected $52.6 million in dues in 2024. In January 2026, 30,000 of its members went on strike at Kaiser for four weeks. It was the largest nurse strike in US history. When it was over, they got $0 in strike pay.
I pulled the union’s public filing to see where the money went. Here is what I found.
These numbers are from March 2026, when this was first written. Pay changes every year, so check current rates in Map My Pay.
Why I looked at the union’s money
Last week I posted a video on NYSNA’s money. Hundreds of you asked me to do the same for UNAC/UHCP, so I did.
I posted the UNAC/UHCP video next. Most of you came with fair questions. A smaller group came ready to fight. I want to be straight with both.
The numbers
UNAC/UHCP covers about 40,000 nurses and other health care staff. They work in California and Hawaii.
Every union has to file a form called an LM-2 with the Labor Department. It is public record. Here is where the money went, based on that filing:
| Category | Amount |
|---|---|
| Staff salaries | $22.9 million |
| Representation, bargaining, advocacy | $21.7 million |
| Overhead (rent, phones, utilities) | $9.6 million |
| Staff benefits (health, pension) | $8.2 million |
| Per capita tax to AFSCME | $7.7 million |
| Running the union | $5.1 million |
| Politics and lobbying | $2.5 million |
| Donations and grants | $158,000 |
| Strike benefits | $0 |
What stood out
The top paid person was not even an officer. A rep director made $307,528. That is more than the union president made.
Over $3.8 million went to hotel conventions. The Westin Bonaventure in LA cost $2,016,328 for one convention. The Hilton San Diego cost $1.4 million. The Sheraton Universal cost $355,000.
Each year, $7.7 million goes straight to the parent union, AFSCME. That money does not come back.
What nurses lost during the strike
Here is what nurses lost in pay over those four weeks, at 32 hours a week:
| Experience level | Hourly rate | Weekly loss | 4-week total loss |
|---|---|---|---|
| New grad | $52.63 | $1,684 | $6,736 |
| 5 years | $71.85 | $2,299 | $9,196 |
| 25 years | $85.45 | $2,734 | $10,936 |
No strike fund existed. Members had never voted to create one.
What the comments taught me
The video had been up for one day. The feedback already pushed me to sharpen a few things.
Some members pointed out that the LM-2 totals include more than base salary. They can include extra pay and other payments. That is fair, and I will be more exact from now on.
Others explained that a strike fund needs a member vote. UNAC had not gone on strike in over 40 years. So members never voted to start one.
I get that. But I still want to know why it was never put to a vote. Union leaders knew contract talks were coming. The strike did not sneak up on anyone. There was time to have that talk with members, and it never happened. That is the gap.
I support unions
Let me be clear. Unions are the reason California nurses earn $70 to $150 an hour. In some states, nurses earn $28 to $35. That gap is life changing. It changed mine. Monica and I left New York because of what union contracts out west made possible.
Asking where dues go is not anti-union. It is for the members. Members pay $253 to $2,171 a year. They should know what that money does.
To see what union pay can do, read about the $40 an hour gap between Kaiser NorCal and SoCal.
What should change
Unions should put the strike fund to a vote before the next contract, not after a strike starts.
Members should get a short, plain money summary every year. Most of them don’t know the filing exists. It should be one page. It should show what the union took in, what it spent and what it saved.
Members just lost up to $11,000 on a picket line. Big costs like $3.8 million on hotels should be easy to explain to them. This is not a wild ask. Members should be able to hold their union to account.
One more thing
Several people said Kaiser paid me to make this video. Here is why I made it.
I built this channel because too many nurses don’t know what they are worth. They don’t know where their money goes. Hospitals win when nurses stay quiet about money. I built a business so nurses don’t have to stay quiet.
If you want to read the filing yourself, go to dol.gov and search UNAC/UHCP. Everything in the video came straight from that document.
Knowing your numbers is the best protection you have. That goes for knowing where your dues go and knowing what you could earn somewhere else. For more on the fight, read what 30,000 striking nurses are fighting for.
Your next move
See what you’d take home, then make the move
Map My Pay shows what nurses take home after taxes and rent at 465+ hospitals and in 21,000+ cities. It’s the app I co-founded so you can compare cities before you pack a single box.
The Nurses to Riches Accelerator is the plan Monica and I used to go from $37 an hour in New York to $143 an hour in California: license, city, hospital, and what to do with the money after.
Get the Map My Pay app See the Accelerator plans
Every Accelerator plan is a one-time payment with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Written by Jason, RN. I went from $37 an hour in New York to $143 an hour in California and paid off $128K of debt in under a year. I share our numbers in the Nurses to Riches newsletter and on YouTube.