Union Calls on Bill Clinton to Cancel Speech at UC Berkeley

Union says Berkeley exploiting contract workers (Updated)

BY: Alana Goodman

A labor union is calling on Bill and Chelsea Clinton to cancel their appearance at an upcoming conference at the University of California Berkeley unless the school takes measures to improve its treatment of contract workers.

AFSCME Local 3299, the University of California’s largest employee union, announced on Thursday that it is calling for a “speakers boycott” of the Berkeley campus until the school agrees to hire around 100 subcontracted campus janitors and parking attendants as direct employees.

According to the AFSCME 3299, these workers are being exploited by subcontracting companies and are underpaid, despite the fact that many have worked at the university for years and do the same jobs as direct employees.

The Clinton Global Initiative University, a project of CGI aimed at college students, is scheduled to hold its ninth annual meeting at Berkeley on April 1. Bill Clinton and Chelsea Clinton are slated to host the event.

AFSCME reached out to the Clinton Global Initiative about the speakers boycott on Thursday morning, but has yet to hear back, according to a union spokesperson.

President Clinton’s office and the Clinton Foundation did not respond to requests for comment.

The union boycott could pose political challenges for Hillary Clinton, who met with AFSCME 3299 and the UC Berkeley contract workers just last summer.

The presidential candidate was even photographed with Antonio Ruiz, a subcontracted worker who has become the face of AFSCME 3299’s fight against subcontracting. Ruiz has reportedly worked as a parking attendant at UC Berkeley for two decades, but has never been directly employed by the university.

For the full article, click on the link below.
[Source]: FreeBeacon.com