By David Drucker
Daily Bruin Contributor
UCLA’s employment of long-term casual workers has come
under fire this year by the American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees union.
AFSCME alleges that UCLA intentionally fires and rehires the
same employees approximately every 11 months. According to union
officials, some workers have been employed in this manner for more
than 10 years.
“What happens is before a year is up, UCLA will fire
casual workers, then rehire them three or four days or a week
later,” said AFSCME organizer Grant Lindsay.
“The reason they’re doing this is that the
collective bargaining agreement we have with them says that anyone
working more than 12 months is a career-position employee that is
entitled to full benefits and the salary that goes along with
that,” Lindsay continued.
But Assistant Vice Chancellor of Human Resources Ruie Arnett
denied the allegation, and said UCLA employed casual workers long
before the current collective bargaining agreement with AFSCME,
signed in 1995, was in place.
Arnett said UCLA has not used casual workers on a long-term
basis to sidestep the university’s contract with AFSCME.
“We discourage departments from doing that,” she
said.
Arnett explained that personnel decisions are more complex than
the union admits.
“We’re a very decentralized environment … What
happens is, a department requests “˜X’ dollars for
permanent employees,” Arnett said. “Then we review the
budget and counter with what we have available for permanent
employees, and what we have available for temporary
employees.”
Arnett added that Associate Vice Chancellor of Business and
Finance Sam Morabito recently changed the Housing
Administration’s policy on the hiring of casual workers to
allow only one rehire per employee, also calling for a 30-day break
between appointments as a way to stem the long-term cycle of
fire-and-rehire.
UCLA Employee Relations Consultant Michael Beasley, though,
neither confirmed nor denied the allegation.
“I can’t say that (it is happening), but if it is,
then we’re real concerned about it,” he said. “We
plan on looking into it.”
The issue flared up on campus last month when AFSCME led 15
food-service and janitorial workers in a march on the offices of
Housing Administration Director Mike Foraker and Covel Commons
Principal Dining Manager Brandon T. Williams to demand an end to
long-term casual employment and other alleged mistreatment.
“They think I’m a problem because I’m a member
of the union,” said senior food service worker Hiliria Pena,
who added that she’s been turned down for a promotion to
assistant cook twice.
“I’ve been working 12 years in the same position,
and they said that I don’t have the experience,” Pena
said.
Williams declined to comment, citing department protocol. But
Foraker said AFSCME’s allegations are unfounded.
“I don’t think they will hold up under any kind of
scrutiny, so I don’t think there’s any need to defend
them,” said Foraker, who added he finds the union’s
charges of favoritism and other abuses personally offensive.
When asked to explain employee complaints, Foraker blamed
AFSCME.
“These are outside organizers using tactics of an old era
to create trouble,” Foraker said.
Although some university officials were hesitant to comment on
the issue one way or the other, not everyone at UCLA has a problem
with casual workers.
“If one chooses to be hired as a casual worker,
that’s a voluntary action,” said Anderson School
Associate Professor Alfred E. Osborne, Jr. “There are those
that like casual employment.”
But Lindsay disagreed.
“It’s not a choice if the university forces workers
to take these jobs,” Lindsay said.
UCLA class of 2000 graduate Luu Doan, an AFSCME volunteer and
participant in the recent Housing Department protest, said UCLA has
a moral responsibility that supersedes budgetary concerns.
“As a customer of the dorms, and as a taxpayer, I
don’t want my money to pitch in to these unfair working
conditions,” Doan said. “We’re a prestigious
university, and we should be a prestigious employer.”
But Osborne responded that this philosophy is, in effect,
backward.
“Oh, so the taxpayers should pay more?” asked
Osborne. “UCLA, as a public institution, has to be especially
judicious with its money if it is going to survive and prosper.
AFSCME, however, has its own opinion of what UCLA’s
priorities should be.
“Management is making decisions based on just
budget,” said Lead Organizer JR Hernandez.
“They’re making decisions without taking into account
working conditions.”
But Foraker said the union is overstating the situation.
“I think they’re taking the particular situation of
casual workers and painting it with a broad brush,” explained
Foraker. “Have there been abuses? Yes. Is it ongoing and
routine? Absolutely not.”
Nonetheless, AFSCME officials insist that the trend of recycling
workers in casual positions is a problem, and one that stretches
beyond UCLA to encompass the entire UC system. To combat this,
AFSCME has pushed the California legislature to pass SB 1857, which
would make such actions illegal.
“It says that the UC can no longer keep a casual work
force in place for five, 10, or 15 years without making them
permanent employees,” said AFSCME Political and Legislative
Director Willie L. Pelote.
Pelote expects the bill to pass when legislators take it up in
August.
“I never move a bill without being eternally optimistic
that the governor will hear what we’re saying and sign
it,” Pelote said.