On April 3, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech in support of fairer wages that, 40 years later, became the rallying cry for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
On Thursday, inspired by King’s “I’ve been to the mountaintop” speech, members of California’s AFSCME Local 3299 participated in a statewide protest in hopes of getting the University of California to increase wages and benefits for primary care and service workers at all 10 UC campuses.
The huge protest began with chants of “Si se puede,” or “Yes we can,” as AFSCME members took turns voicing their frustrations over a megaphone and ended when a small group of protesters sat down in a circle in the middle of Wilshire Boulevard in an act of civil disobedience resulting in their arrest.
As the mob of protesters marched and picketed its way through Westwood Village, police patrolled the streets attempting to maintain the civility of the protest.
Members of AFSCME Local 3299 said they were frustrated that wages in many classifications are 25 to 30 percent below their counterparts at other leading state hospitals.
Though the state is in charge of allocating the funds, the protest focused on the UC, which is responsible for mediating separate negotiations with both the primary care workers and the service workers.
In February, AFSCME rejected a contract proposal that would have given them a $16 million increase but did not reach AFSCME’s minimum demand of a $15 per hour minimum wage.
Nicole Savickas, coordinator for human resources and labor relations at the UC Office of the President, gave a statement explaining the UC’s role in working with AFSCME to reach a new contract.
“The UC is currently in fact-finding with AFSCME regarding a new contract for both patient care and service employees,” Savickas said.
Savickas also explained that the UC’s role in the process is two-dimensional: It has to negotiate separately with AFSCME on issues regarding primary care workers and ones regarding service workers.
“We’re dealing with two different contracts and two separate negotiations. One group is the patient care employees, and we are also negotiating with the service employees, both through AFSCME,” Savickas said.
Lindsey Quock, a protest monitor who is also external vice president of local affairs for UC Santa Barbara’s Associated Students, said the UC has failed to increase real wages for years.
“Many of the service and primary care workers … are not given pay raises which account for inflation … and the over-reliance on temporary workers means employees with even 25 years experience are being paid below market wages,” Quock said.
The protest, which lasted for over two hours, included protesters young and old, with some having fought for the cause since King gave his speech.
Bob Hardrick, a UC San Diego service worker, said he has been fighting for these rights since the civil rights era, and he feels a personal connection to the cause.
“Personally, it affects me in many ways, and I know some of my co-workers are working two and three jobs in order to survive. In over 40 years, we still haven’t really moved away from what we have been fighting for all these years,” Hardrick said.