A day off for higher wages

The demands of Cal’s striking service workers

By Amaris White
From the May 2005 Print Edition

“Sì, se puede; sì, se puede; sì, se puede,” chanted two hundred workers outside Sproul Hall as they protested against the University of California. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 were joined by the Coalition of University Employees and other union groups from the area in a day-long strike on April 14 in a statewide effort to increase wages.

“We’re letting them know we’re hurting now; it’s time to heal this,” said Joe Pulido, a senior building maintenance worker, and Member Action Team Leader. Pulido, a university worker for 27 years and UC Berkeley student in the late 1960s, said, “with this solidarity, we can show them they may not want to be as dogmatic as they have been.”

However, despite protesting and encouraging students and teachers across UC campuses to “not cross the picket lines,” many argue that the strike is serving no purpose, and if anything, is actually damaging.

“We don’t think it helped negotiations — any strike generally has a negative affect,” said Noel Van Nyhuis, spokesman for the UC Office of the President. Van Nyhuis said the university believes these are issues that can only be solved at the bargaining table, and cannot be helped or settled by striking.

UC workers announced and publicized the strike a week in advance in hopes of being more effective, but the university prepared for inconveniences. Of the 13,278 UC Berkeley employees, AFSCME represents fewer than 900 workers, and CUE represents 1,760. Although the exact number of strikers has not been determined, UC Berkeley spokeswoman Noel Gallagher made it clear that the university was still able to provide its services.

By adjusting to the situation, with managers assuming additional responsibilities, “nothing was severely impacted, food services were provided to students all day, nothing closed down, we were still able to basically provide what we usually do,” Gallagher said.

With two rallies and a march, workers were full of energy and chants. Some were busy discussing the issues amongst themselves, while others seemed unsure of why they were there.

Zegai Tesfai said he was striking for “better payment and for whatever it says here,” as he pointed to the sign he was holding.

Another woman looked confused when asked why she was striking and responded by requesting that questions be asked in Chinese.

For most workers, this is a strike to show discontentment with wages. Many complain that they have not seen wage increases in a couple of years, and that they are not earning a decent wage.

“I do know that with food service workers, most earn about $10.50 an hour, and student food workers start at $9.11 an hour. These are not minimum-wage jobs,” Gallagher said. “The big issue is that this isn’t even in our control, and this is all about calling upon the state to ask them to fund these interests, we haven’t had a general across-the-board raise for UC workers in two years. These workers aren’t singled out; this is something we all face.”

Wage increases are dependent on state funding, said Van Nyhuis, and the university is currently working on a budget compact with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. If the budget goes through the legislature, it will include increased wages for service workers, and other funding for the UC system, in exchange for more accountability in specific academic areas.

“One of the things AFSCME is asking is that wage increases be guaranteed, and we’re just not in a position to guarantee that, since the compact needs to be approved by the legislature before we can guarantee anything. We don’t know about our funding yet,” Van Nyhuis said.

AFSCME is demanding that wages be increased every six months over the next three years. This 20-percent increase would be twice that which the compact could provide even if it were to pass, and would cost the university more than $36 million.

In spite of monetary restrictions, the university has worked to improve benefits for its employees by internal restructuring. It adopted salary-based health care premiums for health care workers, thereby allowing them to pay less, while receiving the same wage as other employees. It also gave workers two extra days off with pay in December for the 2004 holiday season.

When workers protested at the International House the evening of April 14, Chancellor Robert Birgeneau arrived and said to a cheering crowd, “I firmly support wage increases, and I support a living wage.”

Talks continued through Monday and Tuesday after the strike, and although most hope to reach an agreement soon, many also believe that the workers’ strike was ineffective and harmful.

“Just in general, obviously they tend to inflame negotiations and a lot of time they leave hard feelings on both sides,” said Van Nyhuis. “It doesn’t solve anything, and nothing will change with the striking. The university is dedicated to fair bargaining, we’re committed to collective bargaining, and we believe in a fair contract, but all these issues are resolved at the bargaining table; nothing will be resolved through strikes.”

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