MEDIA ADVISORY: Hundreds to March on UCLA Med Center

Posted On Jul 26th, 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, July 26, 2017
CONTACT: John de los Angeles, 650-438-1961, [email protected]

 

Hundreds to March on UCLA Med Center

UC to Layoff Contract Workers Who Were Cheated Out of Minimum Wage

(LOS ANGELES, CA) – On Friday, as many as 500 University of California (UC) workers and students will be marching on UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Medical Center to protest the outsourcing of frontline jobs and the treatment of contract workers at UC. Among the workers will be dozens of outsourced UCLA contract valet drivers who are facing layoffs after reporting violations of UC’s minimum wage policy.

“UC is a taxpayer funded institution and our state’s third largest employer,” says Kathryn Lybarger, President of AFSCME Local 3299. “UC should not be chipping away at the middle-class by outsourcing full-time jobs to low-wage contractors who mistreat their workers.”

Below are details of Friday’s march.

  • What: Workers’ March on Ronald Reagan Medical Center
  • When: Friday, July 28, 2017
    11:30 am (start of march)
    12:00 pm (picket)
    12:30 pm (return to start)
    1:00 pm (rally)
  • Where: Westwood Blvd. & Le Conte Ave. (start/rally location)
    Ronald Reagan Medical Center (picket location)
  • Who: Kathryn Lybarger, President of AFSCME Local 3299 Ed Hernandez, California State Senator and Candidate for Lt. Governor Rusty Hicks, Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the LA Fed ABM Valet Workers

Friday’s march supports efforts by the outsourced UCLA contract valet drivers to be directly employed by UC. Most of the more than 80 contract workers have worked full-time at UCLA’s Ronald Reagan Medical Center for years—earning just a fraction of the wages and benefits of directly employed UC workers who do the same job.

Last year, the workers notified UC that thir managing company, ABM Industries Inc., had failed to pay its workers the system-wide minimum wage that UC announced in 2015. In early July, just months after finally receiving the pay they were owed, UC gave notice of plans to layoff most of the valet drivers in September. Today, UC is advertising student valet driver positions to replace the ABM workers. Many of the student positions are not expected to be covered by UC’s minimum wage policy.

“History shows that UC is determined to outsource jobs to contractors, but unable to police them,” adds Lybarger. “This hurts not only workers and their families, but the patients and students we serve.”

AFSCME Local 3299 is the University of California’s largest employee union, representing more than 24,000 employees at UC’s 10 campuses, 5 medical centers, numerous clinics, research laboratories, and UC Hastings College of Law.

###

Tags