UCLA labor fights for more rights

By Marcelle Richards
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Students and laborers filtered into Kerckhoff Hall lounge Monday
to discuss how to improve labor conditions on UCLA’s campus
““ conditions some of the speakers compared to sweatshop
labor.

UCLA Students Against Sweatshops, the Environmental Coalition,
and members of the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees union were among those who participated in the
discussion.

AFSCME represents roughly 17,000 UC employees, who will undergo
a contract renewals on April 30 and June 30.

Issues of privatization and corporatization arose as significant
problems which endanger job security and the quality of workplace
environments, despite union contracts.

On a smaller scale, favoritism, unstable hours and repeated job
termination are plights which often go overlooked by the UCLA
community at large, said Gregory Hom, a third-year environmental
studies student.

“They keep this campus beautiful and that should be
recognized. The chancellor doesn’t do that,” he said.
“We pay money to go to this school, we should demand our
money not go to exploiting workers on campus.”

Senior food service employee Lorena Arrieta was still in her
catering uniform when she spoke to the crowd during her break.

Though she’s been a dining services employee for 10 years,
she said her hourly wage has increased only $2 since she
started.

“When I go home, my head, my legs hurt,” she said as
she wrung her hands. “It’s because of the pressure.
Every time I show up to work I know I have to work the job of two
people. We go through this daily struggle.”

Arrieta was put on the “career path,” a status which
elevates employees as more than casual workers. But she said many
of her colleagues spent 10 years or more being hired, fired and
re-hired repeatedly so managers can retain them as casual workers
with no benefits and lower wages.

Last November and December, union members successfully
campaigned to eliminate the hire-fire cycle, she said. Nonetheless,
many still see the need for further improvements.

“We have a terrible relationship with our managers,”
Arrieta said. “Once you become active in a union we get
retaliated. They do 1,000 violations to the contract we
have.”

Favoritism, she said, was the most common form of discrimination
among workers.

Catering assistant manager Monika Phielke said she did not feel
these problems were an issue in the workplace.

“It’s always been the case that promotions are given
on openings, experience and seniority,” she said. “We
have a lot of career employees that have been hired fresh from the
start.”

AFSCME lead organizer J.R. Hernandez said these problems are
present across all spectrums of labor, though they are overlooked
by employers who tend to be anti-unions.

“The university is running like a corporation with many
times disregard to worker conditions,” he said. “It
becomes a stressful workplace that effects the quality of
service.”

UCLA medical center workers are only one of the many groups who
are experiencing this problem, he said.

“What UCLA is doing is sub-contracting out to private
companies,” said Daisy Chow, a third-year physical science
student. “(The workers) don’t feel pride for their work
and they often aren’t well enough trained to keep the med
center sanitary.”

This allows the university to hire workers on a temporary basis,
without having to offer benefits, she said.

With more than 500 leaders and union membership ““ which
has tripled since 1999 ““ Hernandez said he sees 2001 as an
opportunity to capitalize on the strength in numbers to make the
contract more conducive to establishing worker-friendly
conditions.

But many doubt the unions will be able to shoulder this burden
alone.

The alliance of students, faculty and union members at the event
is the beginning of a start for Chicano/a studies professor and
AFSCME 1108 president Fernando Gapasin.

“None of the unions have the same standing as tenure-track
faculty or administration,” he said. “Until the unions
are able to sit as equals in that circle, it’s going to be a
difficult time in leveraging improvement in employee
relations.”