UCSC service workers, grad students strike
By Kara Guzman
Santa Cruz Sentinel
SANTA CRUZ — UC Santa Cruz service workers and graduate students held a one-day strike Wednesday, effectively closing access to campus and canceling classes.
Union members and students, staff and faculty supporting the strike gathered at campus entrances for more than 12 hours.
Police diverted traffic from campus and most UCSC services were closed.
Few, if any, classes were held on campus Wednesday, said UCSC spokesman Jim Burns.
“We very much regret that the strike deprived our students of their rights to attend classes today,” said Burns. “But, with the entrances blocked by strike activity, clearly safety trumped access in this case.”
The crowd built to more than 300 at noon, when Assemblyman Mark Stone, D-Scotts Valley, spoke at a planned rally at the main entrance.
The protest was part of a UC system-wide unfair labor practice strike by the service worker union, AFSCME.
At UCSC, the union is represented by nearly 500 people, 450 of whom are custodians, dining hall workers, bus drivers and maintenance personnel.
“It’s an issue of unsafe labor with the lowest paid, toughest jobs on campus,” said Stone, one of a dozen legislators planned to speak at protests statewide.
The strike comes amid labor negotiations, but according to union spokesman Julie Edwards, the issue is unfair labor practices, not contracts.
UCSC senior custodian Nick Gutierrez said his crew of 40 custodians is overworked, and about a quarter have chronic injuries to their shoulders and hands.
“Every time someone retires, they’re not replaced,” Gutierrez said. “For the past two years, people have been working double the area.”
The union has been in negotiation with UC over labor contracts for more than a year. UC made its last offer to patient care workers in July and service workers in September.
AFSCME rejected all offers, UC Vice President of Human Resources Dwaine Duckett said in a statement, in spite of what he said were UC compromises on wages, pensions and health care benefits.
“Given the hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding cuts UC has absorbed over the past five years, we must be fiscally prudent,” wrote Duckett.
Union spokesperson Todd Stenhouse said the union compromised on 19 of the 40 bargaining points, but will not compromise on safe staffing.
The contract terms imposed by UC resulted in wage cuts to the lowest-paid workers, he said.
Both sides will return to the bargaining table in December.
The graduate student union, UAW, joined the one-day strike in support of the service workers.
At UCSC, more than 700 graduate students belong to the union.
Robert Cavooris, UCSC graduate student union member, said his professor canceled her Latin American and Latino Studies lecture Wednesday and suggested students come to the picket lines. Students will get extra credit for an essay about what they learned, he said.
“We’re happy to be here in solidarity with thousands of people across the state to speak out against worker intimidation,” said Cavooris.
Megan Thomas, UCSC associate professor of politics, said she heard about the strike from a student. She canceled class Wednesday and attended the protest with two colleagues.
“All of the sectors of the university are being squeezed and I think we need to support each other,” Thomas said.
[Source]: Santa Cruz Sentinel
