By David King
Daily Bruin Contributor
Pamphlets for the UCLA Conference Center at Lake Arrowhead paint
it as peaceful and relaxing ““ but many of its employees
describe it differently.
Some employees, such as grounds keepers and kitchen staff,
disagree with the university’s discouragement of unionization
and the practice of “casual employment,” in which
employees are fired for a small period of time so the employer
doesn’t have to pay benefits a career employee would
receive.
A housekeeper at the conference center who wished to remain
anonymous said despite working six days a week all year long, she
has not yet received full-time or career employee status.
“At this point, I’ve been here six years. I deserve
to be full-time,” she said.
The center is used for various conferences and functions for
UCLA staff.
Nancy Noble, the director of the conference center, denied the
worker’s allegations.
“We don’t have situations where we aren’t
following the policies that I know of,” Noble said. “We
treat all our employees equally.
“Right here, we’re isolated from campus, so we hope
that we try and address every situation that the workers bring to
us.”
Casual employment practices by the university are not uncommon,
according to Jose Hernandez, an organizer for the American
Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the union
that is working to organize workers at the facility.
“The majority of people up there are casual
employees,” Hernandez said, referring to the roughly 80
service employees at Lake Arrowhead. “They are basically
keeping people as casual to not give them benefits (and) vacation
time.”
Noble denied allegations of improper employment practices at the
conference center. She said confusion may arise because of the
nature of employment, which has varying workloads during different
seasons.
“We are a little different here, because we are truly
seasonal, so our people who work in grounds we hire from March to
November,” Noble said. “We do have some people who have
been with us for a long time also working these sort of seasonal
jobs.”
She added that seasonal employees, particularly in the
housekeeping department, work less in the summer months, not
more.
“They go down to between 20 to 30 hours a week, and
sometimes less than that,” Noble said.
But the housekeeper said she has worked more hours this summer
because many departments have fewer employees.
“We’re understaffed, we’re overworked and
we’re tired,” she said.
As a casual employee, she said she is periodically fired and
re-hired by the university, and expects to be fired for three days
this September.
Another housekeeper, who also wished to remain anonymous, said
administrators recently presented employees with an agreement in
which they would agree to work every Saturday.
Because she did not sign the agreement, the housekeeper said she
will not receive her tip check ““ a portion of the total tips
received at the center.
But Noble said the paper was only a clarification of the
employees’ existing contract, and having them sign the
agreement was simply a way to ensure that the workers were aware of
the stipulations of their contract.
The stipulation was made after several workers protested their
work hours by saying they weren’t aware they had to work
Saturdays though it was in their contract, Noble said.
“We go strictly by our hiring agreements,” she said.
“We just wanted to make sure they knew (this
policy).”
She said the conference center is a good work environment for
its employees.
“We have a close working environment, and we want everyone
to feel appreciated,” Noble said.
But service employees disagree, and suggest some administration
policies are racist towards the minorities employed.
“If you don’t speak the language, you don’t
get promoted,” the first housekeeper said. “If
you’re white, they think you’re educated and better
qualified.”
“They know already who will be assistants or at the front
desk,” she continued. “We don’t have hope for
another step.”
Shirley Bennett, a member of the kitchen staff, concurred.
Regarding supervisor positions, Bennett said administrators
usually hire people from outside the conference center,
“rather than promote someone who’s here, someone who is
more qualified.”
Noble said long-time employees are encouraged to apply for
promotions, but often don’t. She denied that any
discrimination occurs at the facility.
“It just depends on who walks in the door that’s
qualified, never mind what color they are,” Noble said.
She added that about three of the 12 supervisors at the center
are non-whites.
Employees such as Bennett also complained that union
representation has been discouraged by the conference center
management.
Because of such discouragement, Bennett said she now holds union
meetings at home, rather than at work during their off hours.
Hernandez, who has made several trips to the conference center,
agreed with Bennett.
“They want to prevent the union from going there and
talking to people,” Hernandez said. “If they have the
right to talk about the football game the night before, they also
have the right to talk about the union.”
“That’s what they call interrupting things,”
he continued, referring to administrators.
But Noble said union representatives are allowed to talk to
employees, just not while they are working.
“Our only counsel to them was not to talk to our employees
on their work time,” Noble said. “I’ve had to
tell them that repeatedly.”
“We’ve had a horrible time with the unions,”
she added.
Despite such disapproval, Hernandez said the union plans to
continue pursuing efforts at the conference center, though he
doesn’t expect significant results anytime soon.
“In the end, this is going to be a long labor
struggle,” Hernandez said.