She is often the first person I see in the morning, the first person who greets me with a “Hello,” and she is one out of 41,000 employees who truly make UCLA happen.
But the woman who helps maintain Rieber Hall and cleans the bathrooms every week often walks by without any acknowledgement from the students she serves. Her working conditions, like those of many other UCLA employees, are even further unnoticed.
Wearing her blue-and-white work outfit and a warm smile, she wished me a happy new year and we engaged in a pleasant conversation that should have taken place sooner and more often.
My budding relationship with the woman who cleans my floor’s bathrooms swiftly reminded me of a meeting I attended last November. UCLA’s Afrikan Men’s Collective hosted an event called “UCLA Workers and Students Unite” where union organizers from AFSCME, or the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, educated students on the conditions of workers at UCLA. More significantly, they also encouraged students to see what is within our power to support and give momentum to the workers’ cause for just conditions and wages.
Students, and UCLA itself, need to go further than just appreciating our employees. We need to ensure that UCLA workers are receiving fair living wages and fair working conditions.
AFSCME, an active, member-run labor union, represents 20,000 University of California workers at the 10 campuses and five medical centers. At UCLA, you can find AFSCME members working in residential dining and housing services and in campus restaurants.
AFSCME members are also found in the UCLA Medical Center, working as security guards, custodians and cafeteria staff. And through collective action and cooperative support, union members believe that they can solve problems and gain justice at work.
AFSCME organizers Karume James and Reggie Miles, as well as fourth-year student workers Scott Sia and Areli Perez, presented their entreaties for living wages and protection in health care at the event. Improved benefits and working conditions for employees would only improve the services that workers provide.
Former UCLA student and AFSCME representative Satomi Zeigler added, “out of those 41,000 UCLA employees, 35 percent live below the poverty line.” This effectively means that a family of two adults and two children must subsist on less than $20,444 per year, based on 2006 data.
And the federal poverty line is ineffective as a standard measure of poverty because it doesn’t consider how the indispensable costs of child care and housing differ across the board, being substantially higher in California than in other states.
The university is the 10th largest employer in Los Angeles, employing over 41,000 people and supporting 65,800 permanent jobs in the region.
From its founding in 1919, UCLA has been an institution deeply integral to the well-being of the greater Los Angeles community and California itself. Therefore, UCLA needs to be held accountable for the unjust working conditions and wages that a substantial proportion of its employees face. Without well-treated employees, UCLA ceases to perform as a top university in the United States.
As students, we need to realize that our numbers and our loyalty to the UCLA staff that make our lives so comfortable can change the negative portrayal of workers and strikes. About three years ago, AFSCME workers in the dining halls went on strike and students played a significant role by allying with their cause and refusing to eat for one day.
Students also dedicated a Facebook group to Suzanne Jett, the former Hedrick Dining Hall staff member who is just one extraordinary, helpful member of the workforce that holds UCLA together.
We need to see workers as fellow human beings trying to make their way in the world. While maintaining such a high level of quality in our standard of living, they are unjustly subjected to accepting unfair wages and working conditions.
The strength of AFSCME depends on how many members get involved. Make the workers’ cause our cause.
Want to support UCLA workers? E-mail Do at ndo@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.