Feature Archives

A day after students and workers held a protest outside administrative offices, the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC) rehired Crown custodian and AFSCME 3299 member Angela Ruiz. Ruiz was fired on April 9 for attending a union-sponsored protest against UC President Robert Dynes, even though she had received excellent evaluations and the protest was during her lunch hour. Angela's re-hiring marks the 3rd victory in the past month for activists at UCSC.

LaborFest 2007 will take place in cities around the Bay Area from July 5th through July 31st. LaborFest celebrates the history and culture of working people in an annual labor cultural, film, and arts festival. It begins every year on July 5th, which is the anniversary of the 1934 “Bloody Thursday” event, when two San Francisco maritime workers were killed by a police attack on strikers and their supporters, leading to a general strike that shut San Francisco down.

On May 22nd, University of California workers, represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, announced that a settlement has been reached with the University of California to address the wage equity fight for custodians at UC Berkeley, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz and to end the practice of outsourcing groundskeepers at UC Irvine. The settlement includes an immediate initial wage increase of $1.25 per hour for custodians at UC Berkeley, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz. This wage increase is retroactive to April 2007 and will be additionally increased by $.50 per hour in October, 2007.

The Day Worker Center of Mountain View, which has been housed for the past 5 years at the Calvary Church at California Street and Escuela Avenue, is losing its facility on July 31st, 2007. At a press conference on May 18th, the Center was to announce that it has been searching for a new home for over a year, but has been stymied by high real estate prices. The Day Worker Center provides a safe space for workers and employers to connect, fosters community building, and hosts services such as English language classes. The Center is seeking the support of the community to help locate and fund a new space in the appropriate geographic area for its constituency.

The Student/Farmworker Alliance announced that May 11th and 12th would be Days of Action vs. Burger King calling on the world's #2 burger chain to take responsibility for the conditions of farmworkers in the fields. On May 11th, four students from the University of California at Santa Cruz and one loyal Burger King customer went to the Burger King on Mission Street / Highway 1 in Santa Cruz to drop off a letter to the manager calling attention to the human rights crisis in Florida's tomato fields.

On Tuesday, May 8, students from UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley occupied the UC "Anti-Poverty" Center protesting poverty wages by demanding that the UC release $8.5 million earmarked for custodians by the State Legislature. The UC administration has been holding up the money - meant for low-paid workers on 4 campuses - in an attempt to force concessions in contract negotiations. Meanwhile, The Coup's Boots Riley joined Danny Glover in boycotting UC Berkeley's graduation speech in support of the custodians' wage-parity campaign.

On April 26, 2007, Danny Glover announced that he is joining with Congresswoman Barbara Lee in supporting the ongoing boycott by UC workers against UC Berkeley due to the unsolved issue of pay equity for custodians. Before the boycott began last year, custodians who clean the dorms and classrooms at UC Berkeley have been urging the Chancellor to end poverty wages. According to the Economic Policy Institute 100% of the custodians at UC Berkeley earn a wage that is below the $19.78 per hour needed to support a one parent and one child household in the East Bay.