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Santa Cruz Indymedia | Education & Student Activism | Globalization & Capitalism | Immigrant Rights | Labor & Workers | RaceUCSC Workers, Students Grill Chancellor, Give June 5 Deadline
On Tuesday, May 23, UC Santa Cruz's custodians, part of the union AFSCME, continued their hard-fought wage parity campaign by staging a respectful protest inside Chancellor Denice Denton's Brown Bag event. The workers are frusterated over the Chancellor's lack of support for custodians and their families. While the Chancellor consistently refers to 'market rates' to justify top admin salaries (she earns upwards of $400,000/yr.), she has yet to support custodians whose poverty wages are up to 30% less than neighboring colleges. At the event, AFSCME organizer Julian Posadas announced that some workers were considering a hunger strike and that the Chancellor has June 5 as a deadline to support the workers.  bbag052306_1.jpg While over 1700 student petitions were delivered to the Chancellor, showing student solidarity with workers, many students associated with the successful C.A.R.E. (Community and Resource Empowerment) measure from last spring attended to remind the Chancellor of her yet unfulfilled legal commitment to provide the funding she promised for Student Initiated Outreach (SIO) and retention programs. The SIO programs, housed in the student-run Engaging Education (e^2) center, are responsible for the recruitment and retention of thousands of students of color on campus. Yet, when the Chancellor announced that UCSC's class of 2006-2007 was, for the first time in history, majority people of color, she failed to mention the students who are largely responsible for this occurance. The students, dressed in their green C.A.R.E. shirts, came to remind the Chancellor of the over the $70,000 she has owed SIO programs for months now. In Spring of 2005, the Chancellor agreed to match the funding generated by a new student fee (called C.A.R.E.) to support SIO programs. Expecting this money, the programs budgeted in her stated contribution, only to find themselves deep in debt after the Chancellor failed to meet her legal obligations. To this date, the SIO programs have still not received the promised money from the Chancellor. If this $70,000 is not deposited soon, the SIO programs will be unable to operate, drastically harming the diversity of the campus.
While she's continously asserted a 'diversity' platform, students are frusterated over the Chancellor's lack of any meaningful action towards this end, the huge rate of key faculty of color leaving (especially from American Studies) as a result of disrespect from the administration, the lack of Ethnic Studies and Asian American/Pacific Islander studies, the continued attempt to cut programs vital to students of color (including SOAR, the unit that houses student organizations), and the attack on the humanities (including the Language Program). All of this is amidst a top-admin salary/perk scandal, efforts to continue the management of UC's two nuclear weapons labs, and attempts to drastically expand the UCSC campus. The only question that remains is this: what exactly are they trying to expand? ----- Please contact sugarloaf@riseup.net to repost/reprint these photos. Thanks! For more information please visit: http://www.afscme3299.org http://www.engagingeducation.org
Chancellor Denice Denton
 bbag052306_2.jpg One the way in, the guests received fake-official pamphlets detailing labor problems at UCSC. Once inside, everyone listened quietly as the Chancellor gave her not-so-exciting speech. However, as later noted, there was no translation for the workers whose primary language is Spanish.
End Poverty Wages at UCSC
 bbag052306_3.jpg After the Chancellor's speech was over, workers had the opportunity to have some Q&A. When an AFSCME custodian got the mic, everyone stood up with their signs.
1700+ Students Demand Justice
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Students and Workers United for Justice
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Wage Parity Now!
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Petitions Delivered
 bbag052306_7.jpg A student is handed the microphone and asks the Chancellor whether she knew how much students supported workers, members of the Student and Worker Coalition for Justice (SWCJ) deliver more than 1700 petitions.
Students <3 Workers
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AFSCME 3299 and Friends
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Hij@s
 bbag052306_10.jpg As is common, a few custodians brought their little children. This struggle is about families.
Keep the Bosses Accountable
 bbag052306_11.jpg It wasn't just custodians that had beef with the UCSC administration (represented by the Chancellor), but just about every worker that spoke took issue with some element of the administration. UPTE union members expressed concern over an attack on their pensions, while other workers questioned why non-represented (i.e. non union) workers were able to get a raise when others were not, as well as concerns over how much research money comes from the Department of Defense, the lack of diversity, and the lack of accountability of administrators.
Si Se Puede
 bbag052306_12.jpg At the end of the Q&A session, the custodians chanted Si Se Puede before doing the traditional solidarity clap.
Outside
 bbag052306_13.jpg Students associated with C.A.R.E./Student Initiated Outreach (SIO) programs lined up to ensure that the community was aware of the Chancellor's $70,000 debt to SIO programs, and her disrespect of students of color in general.
Debt
 bbag052306_14.jpg Individual SIO programs from different communities detail the amount of money the Chancellor owes to them.
Do you C.A.R.E.?
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More Debt
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Chancellor Denton and Liz Irwin
 bbag052306_17.jpg The Chancellor walks off with a card detailing her $70,000 debt and a C.A.R.E. bear (the image symbolizing last spring's campaign), while Liz Irwin, the public (mis)information officer/Executive Vice Chancellor walks off with the 1700+ student petitions supporting AFSCME custodians.
C.A.R.E. Community
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