Thought Wal-Mart Treated Workers
Poorly? Workers & the University

By the DisGuide Collective
Last spring quarter the janitors, cafeteria workers, groundskeepers, and other UC service workers went on strike to protest the University’s continued mistreatment of its employees. The strike was held at every UC campus, with students and faculty joining in to call for a more just university.

The strike occurred because the University’s administration refused to negotiate in good faith with the worker’s unions, AFSCME (Association of Federal, State, County, and Municipal Employees), and CUE (Coalition of University Employees). For more than a year both unions had been working without a contract, the agreement between the University and its workers that establishes pay scales, health care coverage, career advancement structure, and other basic conditions of labor. The UC administration claimed that the workers demand’s for higher wages, for good healthcare, and other necessities was too much, and that the University could not afford it. All of this while top-level administrators were receiving raises exceeding tens of thousands of dollars pushing many of their individual salaries beyond a quarter of a million dollars.

As if the absurd pay inequalities weren’t enough, UC has also been diverting money intended for staff wage increases, often spending the money on other things, or simply putting it in reserves. The administration diverted approximately $20 million in such funds in 2004 alone. According to Gerald R. McKay, an arbiter selected by CUE and the University to investigate wage stagnation, there is “no question that the University is in a position to afford a wage increase for the clerical employees.”

The strike last spring succeeded in winning a better contract for those who clean, cook, and maintain the university. The new contract included better pay, necessary benefits like healthcare, and much more. The strike succeeded because it was the right and just thing to do, and because many students, faculty, and other staff members joined the service workers in solidarity by walking out of classes, joining the picket lines, and voicing their support. At UC Santa Cruz the whole campus was literally shut down by a coalition of students and workers. It was a powerful and extremely effective show of solidarity, and along with actions here at Santa Barbara, at Berkeley, Los Angeles, Irvine, Davis, Riverside, San Francisco, and San Diego, the strike succeeded in making the UC Regents and administration listen to and provide for worker’s needs.

There’s much more work to be done. The current UC service workers’ contract is an improvement, but it’s not all that it needs to be. Many UC service and clerical workers are still paid much less than the cost of living. According to the National Economic Development and Law Center, “UC service workers’ wages are too low to cover the bare-bones costs of raising a family: 93% of UC service workers earn wages that would not meet basic needs for a single adult with a child, and 46% earn wages that would not meet basic needs for a two wage-earner, two child family (if both adults earn the same amount).” These 7000 UC service workers are mostly immigrants, women, and minorities. Their plight is known by millions of workers in the United States who have experienced a drastic decline in their quality of life for decades now. Wages have dropped, employers have withdrawn healthcare, childcare, pensions, and other benefits, and job security has crumbled.

The University’s support for these 7000 employees is so poor that the average food service worker qualifies for nine state and federal assistance programs. These include: food stamps, housing subsidies, and the Medi-Cal and Healthy Families programs. In this respect, UC’s mistreatment of its workers results in the same kind of shenanigans that Wal-Mart has been pulling for years. By paying its workers next to nothing the University, like Wal-Mart, is profiting off publicly funded programs that cover healthcare, housing, and other needs that should be paid for by the employer, but are not because of the worker’s vulnerable position and inability to demand more without the risk of losing their jobs.

Here at UCSB many of our friends and colleagues who cook, clean, and maintain the University are struggling to survive. The cost of living in Santa Barbara county is incredibly high and rising, while average pay for workers is incredibly low and stagnating. Students know about these issues. Rent is robbery, constantly increasing alongside our fees.

The UC’s clerical workers are struggling alongside the service workers. Their pay is equally undervalued and they haven’t seen a sufficient increase in pay or benefits in years. Meanwhile the prices of housing, food, and gasoline soar.

Problems still loom large for UC workers and students, as there is no indication that funding for higher education will increase, that UC administrators will get their priorities straight, or that massive state spending on prisons, wars, and corporate subsidies will decline. As worker’s wages decline relative to prices, as benefits are slashed, student fees are raised.

The strike last spring was part of an answer to these problems. Workers and students proved that by joining forces we can successfully oppose the unjust system of exploitation that is draining all of us.

So Who Makes What in the UC?

UC Regent John J. Moores: Salary, none, Regents don't get paid, but he's worth at least $750 million.

UC President Robert Dynes: Salary $390,000 - plus a million different perks and benefits including health care, housing, transportation, and more. Dynes is also a board member of Leap Wireless. We don't know how much this corporation pays him, but it's surely a lot.

UC Academic Provost MRC Greenwood: Salary $380,000

Average UC Campus Chancellor: $300,000

Maximum UC Service Worker's pay: $13.02/hr, or $25,000 a year.

Food Service Worker: $8.50/hr, or $16,400 a year.

A Quick Guide to Campus Unions

AFSCME Local 3299 – The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees “represents 17,000 workers at the University of California. Our union represents workers from every UC facility in the state, including the ten campuses, five medical centers, agricultural and marine research stations, and all other facilities that employ UC workers.” This includes nearly 7000 service workers. (From the AFSCME Local 3299 web site, www.afscme3299.org

CUE – “The Coalition of University Employees (CUE) is the independent, member-run union which was elected in November, 1997 by clerical employees throughout the UC system to represent them. CUE, which was founded in 1995, is made up entirely of UC clerical employees.” (From the CUE web site, www.cueunion.org

UPTE – Represents UC’s 4000 technical employees, 2000 health care professionals and 4000 researchers (From the UPTE web site, www.upte.org

UAW Local 2865 - is the union representing over 12,000 academic student employees, TAs, tutors, readers, and others at 8 campuses of the University of California. (From the UAW Local 2865 web site, www.uaw2865.org