USAC supports students unionizing

USAC sure knows how to end the quarter with a bang. Walking into the jam-packed USAC meeting and glancing down at the many items listed on the night’s agenda, I realized that we were in for one long night.
Due to President Marwa Kaisey’s absence, Internal Vice President Gregory Cendana led Tuesday’s meeting. Before hearing the special presentation by the ASUCLA student workers, Academic Affairs Commissioner Nat Schuster proposed adjourning the meeting at 9PM stating that by setting a deadline they would work more efficiently and be able to study for finals. To my utter disappointment, his motion was shot down, not only once but twice during the five hour long meeting.
Personally, my favorite USAC guideline is the one stating that special presentations will be kept at 15 minutes. However, when the first and only presentation of the night made by the ASUCLA student workers asking for USAC’s support in unionization lasted well over two hours, I gave up all hope of ending the meeting on time.
Over twenty members of the Student Worker Campaign spoke about how student workers are in need a voice. Student worker presenters including Lucia Lin, a first-year political science student, said that students working for ASUCLA perform the same work as union members but are penalized for their student status.
Representatives said that student workers are concerned with the lack of specific job descriptions, insufficient job training, minimal benefits, and discrepancies in wages. They assured council that by joining American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, student workers would receive greater recognition and improve relations with ASUCLA.
When councilmembers raised questions of whether joining unions would be the best solution, Lin replied, “We don’t want to criticize ASUCLA. We work for ASUCLA and we buy from ASUCLA. However, as student workers, we have some individual needs that haven’t been addressed.”
After asking numerous questions and offering many, many opinions, council then proceeded to add amendments one by one to a resolution in favor of students joining a union. Financial Supports commissioner Shaun Doria expressed his frustration with people speaking out of turn and the way that Cendana was conducting the meeting by shouting “Point of Order” several times during the meeting. Oh the drama!
After two and a half hours of thought-provoking and at times heated debate, council hesitantly voted to approve the resolution. The room erupted into applause, and council could move onto the next item on the agenda at last.
USAC approved the final appointee for the Office Space Allocation committee shortly afterwards, and OSAC is now finally complete.
Council then moved on to approving appointees for the election board. After council heard brief bios about the appointees for the Vice President of the election board, publicity chair, and the external relations chair, the first three appointees were unanimously approved. Council decided to table the appointments of the two endorsement relations chair appointees who were not present at the meeting so they could better assess their qualifications and belief in the integrity of the elections in person.
I guess the councilmembers were feeling chatty, because even funding allocation discussions took quite a bit of time. Although it was rather amusing to watch some councilmembers butt heads with several student organization representatives who were displeased with the way funds had been distributed, I was more than pleased when the discussion picked up some pace.
In the final hour of the meeting, councilmembers began passing resolutions left and right. Even before General Representative Carlos Saucedo passed out copies of the new and improved resolution in support of the creation of the campus safety alliance, council moved to approve it by general consensus.
Matias Ramos, director of the Improving Dreams, Equality, Access, and Success (IDEAS) project presented the Resolution in Support of Undocumented Students at UCLA. This resolution supports Assembly Bill 540, which would give undocumented students greater access to financial aid as well as “help provide a pathway to legalization that would recognize their achievements and merits as college students.”
Alumni Representative Todd Sargent was a bit concerned that this resolution could be controversial since it’s in support of a piece of legislation. However, after sorting through the kinks, council approved the resolution and moved on to the final item on the agenda.
External Vice President Tina Park presented the Resolution to Ensure an Accessible and Affordable UC System, which she hopes to present at the UC Board of Regents meeting.
“Fees are increasing…boo! Loan debt is becoming unimaginable…boo! And the UC’s are becoming inaccessible because they are becoming unaffordable….another boo!” Park said as she gave council a low-down on the issues that the resolution addresses.
To address this problem, the resolution called for a fee freeze for the 2007-2008 academic year. Although General Representative Joline Price disagreed with this proposed solution, council approved the resolution in the end.