This article was updated on May 15 at 12:55 p.m.
A sit-in at today’s University of California Board of Regents meeting in Sacramento led to the arrest of 13 union members and supporters for unlawful assembly.
During the public comments period of the meeting this morning, many members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, which represents UC service and patient care workers, spoke about the planned strike next week of patient care workers.
“Yes, we are going on strike,” said Kathryn Lybarger, president of AFSCME 3299 who was later escorted out by police. “Hopefully someday, you (Regents) will help us and not fight us.”
The UC and AFSCME 3299 have been in the midst of negotiations since last year about worker contracts and pension reform. UC officials have said the union will not agree to the pension proposals the University put forward, while the union raises the issue of high executive salary and low worker pay throughout the system.
After 97 percent of the union’s workers voted to authorize going on strike May 21, the UC announced last week that it plans to file a restraining order against the union to keep patients safe.
“It is highly inappropriate for AFSCME to threaten services to patients as a tactic in negotiations about pension benefit reforms,” said Dwaine Duckett, vice president for systemwide human resources at UC, in a press release last week.
Patient care workers across the UC system see about four million patients a year and play a vital role at UC Medical Centers, said Monica Martinez, a union member who works at the UCLA Medical Center.
Martinez said she thinks workers are paid low wages and struggle to make ends meet.
“We are not going on strike just for our patients, but for our families and for the University,” she said.
The regent’s meeting protest, which was prearranged with police officers beforehand, consisted of members and supporters of AFSCME Local 3299, including two undergraduate students from UC Davis, moving past the barriers where they and other members of the public were seated.
Linking arms while clapping and shouting slogans like “Patient Care!” and “3299,” the protesters were surrounded by police and given repeated warnings to disperse.
After about 20 minutes, the protesters were each handcuffed and arrested. The sit-in strikers continued to chant their slogans as they were escorted by police out of the Sacramento Convention Center in handcuffs.
No UCLA-affiliated union members were arrested at the meeting.
Steve Montiel, a UC spokesman, said the protesters were cited and then released, and they are not allowed to return to the meeting.
The regents meeting went into recess and resumed about half an hour later.
Outside the meeting, the arrested protestors rejoined with their fellow union supporters and members, which included students from various UC campuses.
One of the protesters outside the meeting was Joseph Silva, a fourth-year history student and member of the UCLA Student Collective Against Labor Exploitation. He said he came up with union members to Sacramento in a bus this morning and demonstrated with the union outside.
“(The unions) have been in solidarity with the students with Proposition 30 and fought against tuition hikes, and we’re supporting them now,” Silva said.
Compiled by Kevin Truong, Bruin contributor.