Hundreds of UCSD students and employees assembled yesterday
on Library Walk to protest UC patient-care technical and service worker wages,
which have been a growing source of contention since contract negotiations
began more than 10 months ago.
Demonstrators chanted, waved placards and gave brief
speeches in a march that culminated with the chain of protesters encircling
Chancellor Marye Anne Fox’s office complex.
“We are fighting for humanity; we are fighting for justice,”
Associate Vice President of Local Affairs Erin Brodwin said through a
megaphone. “We are concerned about tragedies abroad, but let’s talk about the
injustices that are happening right here at UCSD.”
According to the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees — the union that represents the workers — salaries for the
university’s patient-care technical staff have fallen 25 percent below the
state average, and service workers make as little as $10 per hour.
Marshall
sophomore Daniel Nguyen likened workers’ grievances to students’ distaste for
rising fees, which he said only pad administrative salaries.
He said many students have trouble finding seats in classes,
and urged students and employees to hold the administration accountable for
leaving both groups at the bottom of its agenda.
Nguyen cited incoming UC President Mark G. Yudof’s $828,000
annual compensation package, Fox’s $8,916 auto allowance and UCSD CEO Richard
Liekweg’s recent 20.2-percent wage hike and $70,105 bonus as evidence of a
top-heavy university budget.
After the Public Employment Relations Board fulfilled a UC
request to issue AFSCME an injunction last week barring the union’s planned
June 4 and 5 strike, All-Campus Senator Chris Westling sent an e-mail informing
members of the Student Worker Collective and other campus activist groups that
the rally, originally scheduled to coincide with the strike, would still occur.
“The UC administration is just trying to delay this for as
long as possible and divide the students and workers,” he wrote. “They want to
drag this until after finals so that students will not be heard.”
Jorge Olvera, a UCSD groundskeeper of 23 years who serves on
the AFSCME service-worker bargaining team, said leaving people in poverty
creates moral and economic problems.
“In a way, they are creating this budget crisis,” he said.
“They might as well just give new employees a business card that tells them how
to get on public assistance. If you have more money, you will pay more taxes.
It’s a cycle. For them to hide behind the state budget is not OK with us
anymore.”
Lead university spokeswoman Stacie A. Spector said Fox
recognizes the university’s urgent need to compromise with the union.
“It is the chancellor’s fervent hope that a mutually
agreeable contract will be reached soon between AFSCME and the Office of the
President,” she said in an e-mail. “UC San Diego’s employees are among our
greatest assets, and Chancellor Fox is eager for negotiators for both UC and
AFSCME to come together and reach an accord that will benefit our employees.”
