They marched, holding signs high in their hands, up Bruin Walk
and across Dickson Court, as the midday heat mixed with dry
breezes. The sounds of tom-tom drums and whistles caused students
to turn their heads to the large group, walking in procession to
the doors of Murphy Hall.
They chanted and hollered, as an oversized puppet, designed to
resemble Chancellor Albert Carnesale, led their march.
In their first event of this kind, the Union of Professional and
Technical Employees, which represents 10,000 healthcare, research
and technical employees within the University of California system,
held a one-day, UC-wide strike Thursday to protest the UC’s
alleged unfair labor practices. Approximately 3,000 UPTE members
work at UCLA.
The strikers called into question the negotiating tactics of the
UC, saying that the UC engages in bad faith bargaining.
Lubbe Levin, assistant vice chancellor of human resources, said
the strike did not have any effect on the normal operations of the
university, because relatively few employees went on strike. She
also said departments were notified ahead of time about the
strike.
Levin added that the strikers were very courteous and did not
cause any negative disruptions on campus.
Starting at 4 a.m., strikers created picket lines at several
sites on campus before coming to Kerckhoff Hall for their rally at
noon.
Loudspeakers boomed music from the 1960s, as well as the voices
of UPTE leaders and supporters, as strikers lined the edges of the
Kerckhoff lawn and Bruin Walk. The crowd was host to a variety of
different people, from students to supporters. One man stood on
Bruin Walk, handing out copies of the publication Workers Vanguard,
calling for an intensification of the strike to shut down all
university operations.
Members from several groups, including faculty from UCLA and
leaders of the Coalition of University Employees, spoke out against
the UC and Carnesale.
Several supporters were hopeful for future negotiations.
“A contract will be due after this strike today. They
can’t afford not to compromise with us, because we are the
people who run this institution,” said Hershel Strother, the
campus labor organizer for the UCLA chapter of CUE.
After several other speakers, including Undergraduate Students
Association Council President Jenny Wood, spoke to the crowd in
front of Kerckhoff, the large effigy of Carnesale was carried
forward, followed by a long line of strikers carrying signs with
various slogans, such as “Quality work deserves quality
wages.”
Chancellor Albert Carnesale was not on campus today, as he was
at a UC Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco.
Even so, strikers ascended the stairwell in Murphy Hall to meet
representatives from the Office of the Chancellor.
They met signs of protest from members of a UCLA student group
called LOGIC, prompting one of the march leaders to tell the
marchers not to “respond to the Republicans in front of
you.”
Noel Van Nyhuis, a spokesperson for the UC Office of the
President, said the strike was unlawful, adding that UPTE has
continued to refuse use of a third-party mediator in the
negotiations for a new contract.
“They claim they want to keep negotiating, but they
aren’t at the table; they’re out striking,” Van
Nyhuis said.
Van Nyhuis said the UC and UPTE are still negotiating a new
contract, and that it is unlawful for a strike to take place while
the parties are in negotiations.
She added that Carnesale has no effect on negotiations with
UPTE, and that instead all negotiations are done with the UC Office
of the President.
Rita Kern, president of the UCLA chapter of UPTE, CWA Local
9119, said this is not an illegal strike, but it is an unfair labor
practices strike, which is permissible.
Kern said UPTE has filed 15 unfair labor practices against the
university, including denial of requested information by UPTE and
arbitrarily making changes to workplace rules or conditions without
contacting UPTE.
Kern said the strike was the same kind as the one held in April
by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees.
“Hopefully, this will get the message out there and that
it will be enough to inspire UC to take the next step and come
across the bargaining table with what we need. We’re very
close,” Kern said.