Monday, 2/24/97
Teach-in participants demonstrate against lab layoffs
MEDICAL CENTER: Trend towards privitization blamed for job
losses
By Marie Blanchard
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
About 50 participants took a break from the two-day Labor
Teach-In workshops on Friday and marched to the UCLA Medical Center
protesting last month’s removal of 220 clinical laboratory workers
from university payrolls.
Rallying at the side entrance of the Public Health Building,
various labor organizers and laid-off employees gave short,
impromptu speeches against the medical school and the UC
system.
Yelling "If they can do this here they’ll do it everywhere,"
labor leaders urged the audience to take a stand against what they
view as the beginning of a decline in public health services.
"What is happening to these people here is just the tip of the
iceberg," said Jeff Richmond, chief director for technical
employees at UCLA.
"These people have worked here a long time and they know their
job very well. These layoffs represent the growing trend towards
privatization and the health care quality going down," he
added.
Various former clinical lab technologist (CLT) employees spoke
about the challenges they now face and their struggle against the
University.
"I worked in toxicology for thirteen years and just re-applied
for a position," said Sally Michael, one of the affected workers.
"I have two small children and I’m not optimistic (about getting
re-hired)," she continued.
Another former toxicology department employee described her
predicament to the audience.
"I have worked here for 10 years and after I was laid-off and
tried to re-apply I was told I didn’t have the minimum
qualifications to even be interviewed," she said.
While the University has vowed to rehire half of the laid-off
employees within the next couple of weeks, all will have to
re-apply for the positions. In some cases, employees may lose the
medical benefits they had in their previous job.
The layoffs came down as a means of restructuring and cutting
costs within the medical department.
"The actions we’ve taken are appropriate and in keeping with the
needs of cost reduction," said Medical Center Human Resources
Director Mark Speare in a previous interview with the Bruin.
Although the majority of marchers were only visiting UCLA for
the Teach-In, many of them felt strongly that the layoffs were
unfair.
Some of the laid off employees were in the process of turning in
their union cards to the medical department when the layoffs took
place.
"The fact that 220 people were laid-off right after trying to
unionize is a funny coincidence," said Ted Levine, a geography
graduate student from UC Riverside.
After the half hour march, demonstrators wandered back to
Ackerman Union to grab a bite to eat before the Teach-In workshops
resumed, but all agreed that the message sent to university
officials was well worth the sacrificed lunch break.
"I was satisfied with the protest," Levine said. "You need to
take a stand at the beginning of a situation. If you don’t, the
privatization trend is going to continue."