Michael Avant is the president of AFSCME Local 3299, which represents more than 33,000 service and patient care technical workers across the University of California system.
The son of a union bus driver and letter carrier, Avant learned the importance of standing up for dignity and respect for all workers a young age. In the mid-1980s, Avant’s father — a proud Teamster and ATU driver — went on strike to protect his health and pension benefits. It was a five-year struggle that saw the family relocate to California and perform odd jobs to keep food on the table, forging Avant’s unflinching determination to fight for fairness and dignity for all workers.
Since 2002, Avant has worked as a patient transporter at the UC San Diego Medical Center. In just his second year on the job, he became a member action team (MAT) leader, organizing and representing his colleagues on the jobsite. In 2005, he was elected to serve on his union’s executive board, serving as Local 3299’s executive vice president from 2014-2023. During Avant’s tenure, Local 3299 has become one of California’s most effective fighting unions — nearly doubling the size of its membership, winning dramatic wage increases and industry-standard benefits, and securing historic protections against the outsourcing of good-paying union jobs.
Avant is an original member of Local 3299’s Racial Justice Committee, a longstanding member of Local 3299’s Political Committee, and a vice president of the San Diego & Imperial Counties Central Labor Council. He has played a key role in continuing efforts to build power for workers across California, to address the cost of living and housing affordability crises, and to forge new alliances aimed at empowering the state’s most vulnerable and historically underserved communities.
Avant was elected president of Local 3299 in October 2023, and was elected an International vice president in August 2024.