When people think about UCLA, I want them to think about an
institution of learning. I want them to think about a school that
cares about the students who learn here and the professors,
teaching assistants and staff members who work here.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
The truth is that all UCLA cares about is profit and the
corporations that contribute a huge amount of its revenue.
When I first entered this university, I actually believed this
institution cared about students and the community. But in my four
years as a student at UCLA, that illusion has been shattered time
and time again.
Administrators don’t care about students, or the people
whom they employ. If your buddies donate $150 million to the
university, they’ll name a medical center after you. Remember
Ronald Reagan? A man who as governor and then president made
slashing health care and cutting the UC’s budget two
cornerstones of his legacy? Well, he got a building. At the same
time, the university is rewarding people who have dedicated 20
years of their lives working for the medical center with pink
slips.
It’s revolting to me that a public university whose main
mission is supposed to be providing an education for its students
only cares about profit, but that’s exactly the case with
UCLA.
In the past couple of weeks hundreds of people have been
protesting UCLA’s labor policies. These labor policies
include unfair labor practices for TAs, the attempted elimination
of almost 100 jobs and the continued use of contracted labor.
Quite a few students aren’t aware of just why our TAs went
on a one-day strike earlier this quarter to condemn the unfair
labor practices of UCLA. It’s important to remember that they
don’t want to go on strike. It’s not fun to risk your
job and receive no income at the same time. The TAs are here to
teach; it’s the university we should direct our anger toward
when a class is cancelled.
The university is the party that’s breaking the law. The
teaching assistants can document more than 40 cases of illegal
labor practices in their ongoing struggle with the university. In
fact, it’s taken years just to get the university to
recognize the union, even after a court ordered them to do just
that. Finally, last week, TA union organizers arrived at contract
agreement with the university. And the TAs aren’t the only
workers fighting UCLA; labor struggles here involve many other
workers as well.
The main fight, which must be won, is against the
university’s use of contracted labor. This is a battle which
has been going on for a few years, yet has only garnered attention
recently. When you think about the problem of sub-contracting,
usually it’s corporations that come to mind.
In fact, this was the main problem Los Angeles janitors faced in
their campaign for justice. Sub-contracting is something
corporations can only get away with when workers aren’t
effectively organized.
But this problem doesn’t only affect private corporations.
The fact is, it’s also the main issue facing the 150,000
employees of the UC system. The UC system, with UCLA leading the
pack, has followed corporate America’s lead in the quest for
cheaper labor and higher profits. What happens is that workers who
receive higher wages are fired. They are then replaced by employees
who can receive as little as minimum wage with no benefits. The
result of this process is lower wages, fewer benefits and full time
employees who have no job security.
Administrators understand that people don’t like the idea
of contracted labor. So they’ve come up with a new term. They
call it “casual employment.” This serves to present the
illusion that there are workers who temporarily work for UCLA at
lower wages, but that it’s not a permanent policy. Basically,
they’re lying to us. There are “casual workers”
at UCLA who have been employed here for more than 10 years.
Now, according to UCLA’s personnel policies, if a person
works here for more than a year, they have to be considered
full-time employees. But the university has found a way around that
legal dilemma. It hires people for 364 days, fires them and one day
later “rehires” those same people. This practice has
been documented by the Union of Professional and Technical
Employees in the report, “Abuses of Casual Employment at the
University of California” (http://www.upte.org).
Thus, the workers are continually exploited. So how are they
exploited?
Well, since these people are technically called “casual
employees,” they do not receive pensions, social security
coverage, raises or full health plans. Since they are
“casual,” they can be fired without cause and without
any notification.
Who are these “casual employees” that have been
working here for years? They are employed in technical support,
administrative support, student services, patient care services and
general services. Seventy-four percent of laboratory assistants and
64 percent of researchers are “casual employees.”
Students, hospital patients and workers are all losers in the
university’s quest for higher profits.
Recently, almost 100 workers at the UCLA laundry facility and
medical records department learned they were going to be replaced
by contracted workers. Some of these people have given over a
quarter of their lives to UCLA. In fact, the only repayment these
workers are getting for their dedication and hard work is the
knowledge that the administration cares more about profit than
about their lives. These fairly well paying union jobs are going to
be turned into minimum wage “casual employment”
positions.
These labor struggles have produced two mass protests involving
hundreds of people, which took place in front of Murphy Hall and
the medical center. These protests were both part of a united front
coalition, which involves both workers and students. When the
workers asked for a meeting with the chancellor, they were denied.
Although the chancellor meets with corporate leaders any chance he
gets, he told the people who keep UCLA open and running, “I
feel that I must decline to meet with you at this time.”
Four years ago I thought I was starting school at a university,
not a corporation. But in my four years as a student at UCLA,
I’ve learned a lot about this “university.”
I’ve learned it doesn’t care about the quality of my
education, it doesn’t care about the larger community and it
sure as hell doesn’t give a damn about the lives of its
employees or their families.
The students and workers on this campus should stand together
and tell the administration that we will not stand for its policy
of exploitation. We need to let them know they must bargain fairly
with our TAs. We need to join forces to let them know they will not
get away with firing almost 100 workers just for a few extra
dollars of profit. We have to stand together and let them know that
this is a public university, which shouldn’t follow the
disgusting lead of corporate America. We must demand that they put
an end to contracted labor no matter how deceitfully they define
it.
If you want to get involved in this struggle you can join the
student/labor coalition. Let’s show the university just how
powerful a force we can be.