UC Staff Union protests at Telegraph and Bancroft

UC service workers rally at Berkeley over weekend
Workers protest low wages during Cal homecoming

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By KATY TANG

During UC Berkeley's homecoming football game on Saturday, a banner flew over the stadium reading, "Be fair to low-wage workers."

Roughly 300 service employees from all the UC campuses rallied at UCB beginning Friday afternoon at Sproul Plaza, highlighting a report recently released by a group of Berkeley sociology graduate students.

The report, called "Berkeley's Betrayal," said the campus pays and treats its service workers poorly, and includes statistics of those earning less than a living wage.

It cited 66 percent of Berkeley food service workers earning less than $10.76 an hour and 100 percent of them earning less than $16.88 an hour. Among all service workers at UCB, 20 percent earn less than $10.76 an hour, and 87 percent earn less than $16.88 an hour. The starting wage for food servers at Berkeley is $9.11 per hour.

The living wage for a family of four in the Bay Area is $16.88 when each parent is working, according to a recent press release from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Though the report was done only on the Berkeley campus, UC service workers from across the state say the problem doesn't only exist at Berkeley.

Marlene Slichter, a senior custodian who has been working at UC Davis for three and a half years, was among the 25 UCD service workers present at the weekend of action. Slichter said that not only is she "low-paid," but her standards of living decrease each year by working on campus.

"I'm hoping that the public actually starts to recognize that the workers on all the campuses are providing a vital service for keeping the campus clean, and that we're as valued as any of the faculty out there," she said. "If it wasn't for us, the campus would have to shut down, but we don't feel like we're being represented in the contract negotiations that way."

Slichter participated in the march where workers flooded the major intersection of Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue - across from the Free Speech Movement's birthplace.

Slichter added that the faculty and staff of UCD are "wonderful people," and that she enjoys being around the students. However, "it's the upper management, the [UC] Regents and the people in the contract negotiations that aren't appreciating our work," she said.

The non-violent rally took place for about an hour, until police officers ordered the workers to leave. Sixteen workers were arrested and released the same day, including Gail Price, Secretary-Treasurer of AFSCME statewide.

Price, who also works at the UCD Medical Center, said AFSCME's statewide executive board held its annual Statewide Leadership Conference in Oakland over the weekend, and decided it would be a good opportunity to protest in nearby Berkeley.

Members of AFSCME have been bargaining with UC officials since June, Price said, and the weekend of action was a "good test" to see if AFSCME members should "escalate" their action in the future. The workers' contract with the UC expired with on June 30, but the university has so far rejected all proposals to improve it, according to the AFSCME press release.

Faith Raider, an AFSCME spokesperson, said there aren't enough opportunities for service workers to advance within the UC system.

"UC doesn't have a policy of promoting people from within, not giving training so that people can move up," she said. "The workers are very upset because they're being treated like second-class citizens. Most of the lowest-paid workers are of other colors and immigrants, and it just looks like discrimination."

Dennis Shimek, senior associate vice chancellor for human resources at UCD, said he believes the school has a "very good working relationship with the union at Davis."

"We are working in good faith and certainly hope for an early contract," he said in an e-mail.

There are over 7,000 workers in the service sector who serve food; clean bathrooms, residence halls, laboratories, offices and hospitals; drive shuttle buses and park cars at the nine campuses and five medical centers of the UC system, according to the AFSCME press release.

Meanwhile, AFSCME members are preparing for contract negotiations that will take place at UCD on Oct. 26 and 27.

"We think this could be a long fight, and we just plan to get more militant until we win," Raider said. "Look for action on the UC Davis campus..We have university workers who've worked for 22 years and have only had one job title, so folks want to tell their story."