A Los Angeles rally on July 19 brought a five-day labor strike initiated by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) at University of California campuses to an end.
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The strike took place at the university’s 10 campuses and five medical centers in response to the UC’s refusal to guarantee wage increases or benefits for the majority of service workers.
According to the AFL-CIO’s website, wages of Local 3299 members are so meager that up to 96 percent of them are eligible for government welfare programs. The situation of Mario Pinto, a senior custodian at the UC Santa Cruz campus, is illustrative: “We are living with our whole family together, our kids and grandkids, packed in one house, but we still can’t get by because everything is so expensive. … It is a very critical situation for us. We can’t live in peace. We always have to be thinking about how are we going to make it next month and put food on the table for the kids.”
Meanwhile, top executives at the UC Medical Center recently received big raises and bonuses. According to the union’s fact sheet, the salaries of medical center chief executive officers and chief nursing officers increased by up to 39 percent this fall. The CEOs and CNOs also received bonuses of up to $83,000 in addition to salary increases.
Some 300 picketers attended Friday’s closing rally in Los Angeles. Speakers included Sen. Gilbert Cedillo, California State Assemblymember Hector De La Torre of South Gate and Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the L.A. County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO.
In spite of the five-day work stoppage, facilities remained open. UCLA Medical Center CEO Dr. David Feinberg attempted to demonize the union, charging that the strike was “a threat to public safety.”
Feinberg’s annual salary amounts to a whopping $549,000, according to a May 15 memo marked “Approved” from the Committee on Compensation to the Regents of the University of California. Further, this figure does not include Dr. Feinberg’s annual bonus or his automobile allowance of nearly $9,000.
UC President Mark Yudof blamed the union for the impasse, saying, “The problem is that the AFSCME people have not come to the [bargaining] table.” In reality, the union engaged in 10 months of negotiations prior to striking.
A state-appointed neutral fact-finder reported: “UC has demonstrated the ability to increase compensation when it fits with certain priorities … . It is time for UC to take a broader view of its priorities by honoring the important contribution that service workers make to the UC community and compensating them with wages that are in line with the competitive market rate.” (Daily Californian, July 20)
If Feinberg, Yudof or other high-paid UC officials had been truly concerned about the impact of a strike, they might have considered supporting the reasonable demands of the thousands of AFSCME workers earning paltry wages. Knowing that their hefty paychecks will be on the way, those men can get a good night’s sleep—a privilege that UC workers do not have. Jose de Jesus, a UCLA food worker, told a student filmmaker, “Sometimes I can’t sleep because I’m thinking about how I’m going to make it through the next day.”
