UC Student Worker Justice Network Demands Fair Contract for AFSCME 3299 Workers

For the past twenty months, workers have been engaged in collective bargaining with the University of California. Workers are seeking basic needs such as safe staffing, job security, a wage increase that keeps pace with inflation and is in line with what the university has awarded other workers, and treatment with respect and dignity. The University of California has demonstrated that they can settle contracts with other unions, yet they refuse to bargain in good faith with the union that represents working class people of color.

AFSCME 3299 represents 20,000 service and patient care technical workers who serve over 230,000 students at the 10 UC campuses, and over 300,000 patients each year at the University’s five medical centers, respectively. On campus, these workers are custodians, shuttle bus drivers, gardeners, and dining hall workers. They are among the lowest paid workers at the University of California, and over 90% qualify for some form of public assistance. Furthermore, after dedicating 20 years of service, workers will retire on an average benefit of $19,000 annually.

We, the representatives of the Student Worker Justice Network, hereby stand in solidarity with the UC Service and Patient Care workers of AFSCME 3299 in their fight for a better contract from the UC, including but not limited to their demands for an equitable wage increase, safe staffing, and other basic demands that exemplify both dignity and respect. In the event that workers call a strike, we pledge to support workers on the picket lines. We hereby demand that the UC bargain in good faith with its workers and call on the university to denounce this second-class treatment of the low-wage workers who help make our education possible.


In Solidarity,

The Student Worker Justice Network
Autonomous Students, UC-Santa Cruz
Student-Worker Coalition, UCSB
El Congreso de UCSB
Radio Xicana (UCSB)
Worker’s Justice Coalition, UC Irvine
United Students Against Sweatshops, UC Irvine
La Familia de UC Irvine, UC Irvine
M.E.Ch.A. de UC Irvine, UC Irvine
Asian Pacific Student Association, UC Irvine
American Indian Student Association, UC Irvine
ASUCI: Executive Vice President, UC Irvine
ASUCI: Legislative Council, UC Irvine
AFSCME 3299, UC Irvine
UAW 2865, UC Irvine
Dreams @ UCI, UC Irvine
Muslim Student Union, UC Irvine
Student For Justice in Palestine, UC Irvine


February 26, 2014
https://www.facebook.com/notes/student-worker-justice-network/statement-of-the-uc-student-worker-justice-network-demanding-a-fair-contract-for/269616499864609