69 Hired, Thousands to Go: Under Pressure, Berkeley Takes First Steps to End UC Labor Abuses

Boycotts and sit-ins force UC Berkeley to hire outsourced custodians and parking lot attendants, giving them higher wages and better benefits.

By Mario Vasquez

After working 22 years as a subcontracted parking lot attendant at the University of California, Berkeley, Antonio Ruiz will finally become a full-time UC employee.

An agreement on March 18 between the Berkeley administration and the union representing the school’s service workers, AFSCME 3299 (American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees), resulted in the “insourcing” of Ruiz’s part-time job, as well as that of 68 other custodians and parking-lot attendants at the school. They’ll be employed within 30 days. This also put an end to the speaker’s boycott AFSCME called for in February, when the union urged scheduled speakers to cancel talks until workers were hired.

“I’m going to go see my kids. I’m going to have time to help them with their homework, see my little Jessica grow up,” Ruiz says. “I will have better wages, and I won’t have to sacrifice myself like before.”

Although he does the same job as other workers directly employed by the campus, Ruiz was hired through a private parking company that Berkeley contracted. He made only $13 an hour, the UC’s minimum wage. His unionized employee counterparts earn $24 an hour. Employees also get health care benefits and paid vacation time; subcontracters do not.

The statewide UC system and AFSCME admit that they don’t know how many subcontracted laborers exist in California’s university system, but, in an email, the union estimated there are thousands. Because the UC system is the state’s third-largest employer, its labor practices influence those of other employers.

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[Source]: yes! Magazine