Thursday, September 14th 2006
What’s New
Andrew Quinio reports on today’s union protest on campus for higher wages and against the Diversity Czar:
A group of protesters gathered outside California Hall, the building that houses the office of Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, to decry what they considered “poverty wages” being paid to University of California custodial staff. About 40 people participated in the demonstration, including UC Berkeley students and UC employees represented by the AFSCME Local 3299, the union representing state, county, and municipal employees. Protestors marched in circles during the late afternoon and yelled out several slogans, while others gathered signatures for a petition that expressed support for their cause…
But wages were not the only thing that the crowd was upset about. What initially sparked today’s protest was the announcement of the new Vice Chancellor of Equity and Inclusion position. The new post, announced by Chancellor Birgeneau in late August, will come with a salary of between $182,000 and $282,000 and a budget of $4.5 million. “The 4.5 million budget is appalling,” Schlitz said. According to Schlitz, the Chancellor told the union that there was simply no money to increase the salaries of the custodial staff.
