When several hundred service union members and supporters
marched through campus and chanted for higher wages and better
promotion opportunities July 9, they didn’t have to
understand each other to know they stood for the same thing.
Workers from Guatemala to Japan to the hallways and dining halls
of UCLA participated in the American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees rally, which drew hundreds of people to
call for better working conditions for university service workers
and technicians. The rally was coordinated by the AFSCME Local
Chapter 3299, which represents UC service and patient-care
workers.
“What does “˜Si, se puede’ mean?” asked
Gayle Nye, one union organizer from Canada, referring to the chant
being repeated throughout the march down Westwood Boulevard. The
phrase was made popular by the United Farm Workers’ union
leader César Chávez in the 1960s and 1970s and translates
to “Yes, it can be done.”
When informed of its general meaning, Nye commented on its
significance.
“See, just learning that is important,” she
said.
The rally began in De Neve Plaza, made a stop at Bruin Plaza,
and continued down to the Wilshire Federal Building, drawing honks
from drivers’ vehicles’ horns along the way.
Nye and other women union members from around the country and
the world, took a break from their weeklong women’s union
conference on campus last week to march with AFSCME, which
represents 17,000 UC employees.
The union, whose contract with the university expired June 30,
is negotiating with UC officials on behalf of the
university’s service employees. The union is demanding fair
wages and career advancement opportunities for longtime employees,
said union leaders.
So far the negotiation discussions have been positive, said
Ricardo Cisneros, a dining services worker at UC Riverside and the
executive vice president of AFSCME’s local chapter.
Though the union is not setting a timeline for itself by which
an agreement should be reached, Cisneros said a strike is a distant
option.
“We are not giving ourselves a timeline to go on strike
“¦ (but) if we have no choice, (we) will,” he said.
The union had reached a tentative agreement with the UC on May
26 for its patient-care employees.
Some terms of the agreement include expanded sick leave, better
job security for senior employees, more training resources and
“multiple-year salary increases consistent with funding
increases in the UC’s budget compact with the
governor,” according to a UC Office of the President
statement released June 16.
The release also indicates that the university remains
“hopeful” that a similar agreement could be reached for
the UC’s 7,000 service employees.
Workers gave their own testimonials and expressed their
dissatisfaction with the working conditions they experience.
The marchers made a stop at the Strathmore Building on Westwood
Boulevard that houses UCLA Mail Distribution and Document Services
, which recently informed four employees that they were layoff
candidates.
Trites Bluntson, who had worked in the bulk mail department for
four and a half years, spoke of her concerns about supporting her
child who attends a private school.
Bluntson and her boyfriend Rodney Felder, who has worked in the
receiving department for two years, received a notification saying
they would both be let go Sept. 3.
“I knew one of us was going to go. We live in the same
household, so I don’t know what I’m going to do,”
Bluntson said.
Denise Houle, a manager in the mail office, said she sympathizes
with the workers but added that the budget cuts have plagued the
university and left it with little options.
“The rest of us aren’t going to receive raises
either. “¦ We are in the same boat,” Houle said, adding
that layoffs were the last option her department considered.
Still, many workers believe they deserve more from
employers.
A senior custodian, Debra McBride has worked at UCLA for 18
years, providing rest room supplies and sweeping buildings’
front entrances, among other things. McBride, a South Los Angeles
resident, said she has received a raise of $5.93 in her entire
campus tenure and has not received a raise in two years.
“We are stretched to the limit but expected to do a great
job,” she said.
With reports by Tyson Evans, Bruin senior staff