By Todd Belie
Daily Bruin Contributor
California Assemblywomen Gloria Romero and Sally Havice came to
campus July 7 to examine the working conditions of casual employees
at UCLA at the request of organizers from two unions representing
university employees.
In addition to visiting Covel Commons and the Neuropsychiatric
Institute, the state representatives received an overview of
problems allegedly facing casual employees.
It is alleged that casual employees work, often full-time, for
the university but are fired after a period so the university can
avoid hiring mandates that would allow the employees to become
full-time and receive benefits.
Job security, lack of full medical coverage and retirement
funding were outlined as major issues of concern by Jose Hernandez,
an organizer with the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees.
“We have a big problem,” said Hernandez,
“(Administrators) are abusing the system, undermining
service, and are keeping people scared by threatening to fire them
if they speak out.”
Anthony Campagnoni, an associate director at NPI, briefly met
with the group, which was touring campus under the auspices of
looking at new research. He disputed claims that casual workers
were being treated unfairly.
“Policy is done on a case by case basis, many casuals come
here as a transition job out of school, but come to like the work
and don’t want to go” Campagnoni said.
“We don’t mistreat casual employees,”
Campagnoni said. “They are simply too valuable to
us.”
The informal and impromptu meeting in the halls of the NPI gave
labor officials and Havice a chance to voice their concerns. The
group, however, declined Campagnoni’s invitation to further
discuss the issue of casual workers because of time
constraints.
University administrators could not be reached for comment late
Friday afternoon.
The tour group, consisting of the assemblywomen, disgruntled
employees, and labor officials, was shuttled to Covel Commons where
they interviewed workers in the cafeteria.
While discussing conditions with a small group of workers, the
assemblywomen were confronted by Michael Foraker, director of the
Housing Administration’s Business and Financial Service, who
informed the assemblywomen that it was improper to disturb
employees while they were working.
After a brief discussion with Foraker, the assemblywomen moved
on to the Covel dining area, where both spoke in Spanish about
working conditions with several off-duty employees.
As they departed from Covel, their conversation with the workers
left one of the employees in tears.
“This is an issue of fairness,” Havice said.
“With no chance of moving up and no benefits, these part time
employees are stuck here forever. This shouldn’t happen in a
state university supported by the public.”
Romero also gave her reaction to employee concerns.
“I’m concerned about the basic practice of
abuse,” Romero said. “When people are working five or
10 years and only getting the benefits of a 13-month part-time job,
there’s a clear problem.”
While leading part of the tour Cliff Fried, executive vice
president of University Professional and Technical Employees
discussed the need for policy meetings to resolve problems among
casual employees.
“The hardest part is getting the administration to dance,
and they don’t seem to want to dance,”said Fried.
Campagnoni and the assemblywomen both said they wanted to meet
again in the future to discuss the issues further.