Failure of Contract Negotiations Forced AFSCME Local 3299 to Protest Last Week
from: The Daily Cal
By Hank Chapot

Sunday, July 20, 2008 | 9:00 pm
Category: Opinion > Op-Eds

Employees of the University of California picketed at all ten campuses and several of the five medical centers from June 14 to 18 as another step in our struggle to end near-poverty wages for workers who feed, clean and maintain the campuses. UC executives have dragged its unions through negotiations without movement. When my union members voted to strike, UC management, coached by one of the worst union busting law firms in the country, went to court, misled the media and blamed the workers.

The problem for workers represented by AFSCME is the problem of most of the underpaid work force at UC, easily the biggest employer in every host community. While agreeing publicly that we are underpaid, the suits who run UC test the tolerance for poverty of its low paid work force, and for many years these employees took what was offered. But the economic crisis has forced us to throw down the gauntlet; we must have prevailing wages, seniority steps and no more increases in fees for workers and students. read the full article