Representation vital to worker’s aims

Inchauspi is a clinical lab technician and a University of
Professional and Technical Employees representative. He works in
the Pathology Lab at the UCLA Health Care Center.

By Lou Inchauspi

After 19 long years at this medical center, having made many
friends, fought many battles, with a wounded knee and an aching
wrist, I am taking my retirement and leaving UCLA.

I wish we could all get together, reminisce and share a laugh,
but truthfully, I do not think I have it in me. I am on the brink
of exhaustion, tired and discouraged. What surrounds us in Clinical
Labs, the atmosphere, the working conditions and the management,
all make for a very sad picture. I cannot function in such a work
environment.

We once had careers we were all proud of and a management that
supported and promoted good work ethic, loyalty and honesty. We
were proud to wear our service-years pins when experience mattered
and we were rewarded for it. With time, things have changed for the
worse.

I ask myself why I want to leave UCLA and what I will be walking
away from. I have no urgency to retire. I am leaving because I am
overworked, hurt, tired and over-managed. We have witnessed and
suffered the unfairness of the 1997 mass layoffs, the indignity of
having to reapply for the jobs that we had held for many years and
having to prove our competency and worthiness.

After all, we were the Clinical Lab technicians that UCLA
trained us to be. It hurt me to see good, competent technicians let
go or demoted. It hurts me to see the unfairness of new hires
getting higher pay than us and then us having to train them. It is
sad to see careers tumble into “clock in and out” jobs
where favoritism operates, obedience is rewarded and independent
thinking is discouraged.

It is just about impossible to have a life when our vacation,
holiday and weekend requests are at the mercy of a selected few who
use them more as a manipulative tool to punish or to reward, rather
than grant it as a benefit we have earned. A while back we received
a memo informing us that time off would not be granted for medical
appointments due to staff shortage. My recent vacation request took
45 days to be denied. How’s that for being able to make plans
or get sick or live!

I am tired of fighting and negotiating lawsuits and contracts
just to secure our basic rights and decent working conditions.

Now it is someone else’s turn to fight and to negotiate.
It’s someone else’s turn to join the unions so that
they can be empowered and have a say.

I wonder what the aim and the philosophy of our management is.
We always seem to be standing on opposite corners and hardly ever
find a common ground. Employees’ welfare, patient care and
quality are words seldom mentioned anymore.

What will happen when we leave and what kind of care will we
receive if we become patients? Isn’t quality treatment the
ultimate goal?

There are many battles ahead for medical center workers. Their
rights will not be granted freely; rather, the workers will have to
fight for them. I wish them much luck in dealing with this
bureaucratic labyrinth.