“Our tuition dollars fund racism and injustice”: California students protest university labor outsourcing

50 students are occupying UC Berkeley chancellor’s office, in what they say is the largest sit-in since the 1970s

By Ben Norton

(Update: 22 students were arrested at the sit-in. See the update below.)

More than 50 students are staging a sit-in in the office of University of California, Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks. The protest, which was organized by the school’s Student Labor Committee (SLC), is calling for an end to university labor outsourcing and exploitation.

Custodial workers and parking attendants at UC Berkeley are subcontracted to the companies Performance First Building Services, American Building Management (ABM), and LAZ Parking.

One of these contractors, Performance First, is under federal investigation by the Department of Labor for alleged rights violations. In a report by the Los Angeles Times, subcontracted UC Berkeley workers said that, during sports events, they sometimes work 80- or 90-hour weeks and are denied overtime pay.

A custodian who was employed by Performance First told the LA Times she worked 16-hour days, seven days a week to prepare for and clean up after UC Berkeley’s Golden Bears football games. She said she never received more than $10 an hour, in contravention of California’s labor laws.

The Department of Labor is still looking into the workers’ allegations.

UC Berkeley’s subcontracted workers, who are overwhelmingly people of color, are paid less than their directly UC-employed counterparts, and frequently do not have access to health benefits, retirement plans, or job security.

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[Source]: Salon.com