UCLA service workers protest in response to pay cuts and pension changes

About 100 UCLA food service and patient care workers are protesting in Covel Commons, Ronald Reagan Medical Center and UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica today in response to proposed pay cuts and pension changes that are currently under negotiation with the University of California.

The protesters, some of whom said they were on their break and dressed in their service uniforms, held signs and circled Covel Commons.

The protests are part of a series of demonstrations taking place across the UC – at all 10 campuses and at UC headquarters in Oakland, Calif., according to a press release from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees local 3299 Union, which represents UC employees and organized today’s protests.

The UC service workers’ contracts expired today, which allows the workers to go on strike, said Kathryn Lybarger, president of the union. Today, the workers are protesting the changes in negotiations but are not on strike, she said.

University representatives were not immediately available for comment.

AFSCME’s 3299 local union branch and the UC began negotiations last fall for service worker contracts, and earlier in 2012 for patient care hospital worker contracts, Lybarger said.

Compiled by Erin Donnelly and Katherine Hafner, Bruin senior staff.

[Source]: Daily Bruin