Gomez is a fifth-year political science and comparative
literature student.
By Osvaldo Gomez
ASUCLA stands for Associated Students of UCLA, yet students have
very little say in its practices.
Due to the Northridge earthquake in 1994, Kerckhoff Hall and the
original Ackerman Union had to undergo seismic renovations that
contributed to a financial crisis. The new Ackerman Union student
store was already under construction, money was very tight, and
very little money remained to pursue the Kerckhoff renovations. All
seismic renovations were state mandated, however, so ASUCLA had no
choice but to continue. In the end, the university stepped in to
loan ASUCLA money to finish the new student store project.
Previous to this, ASUCLA had been hiring non-student workers to
work full-time and was paying them a few dollars over minimum wage
with some benefits. Because ASUCLA, as a supposed
“˜student’ organization, was not part of the UCLA
bureaucracy, it did not have to follow the UC policy of providing
all full-time workers with career benefits and retirement
packages.
After the loan, however, ASUCLA responded to the financial
hardship by subcontracting their non-student workers to a
third-party temp agency that cut the workers’ wages.
Assistant managers and all higher administrators at ASUCLA were
already receiving the great benefits package that the UC provides
and didn’t want to take a pay cut themselves. Instead they
forced their over 150 workers to take one. These workers were told
they could keep their jobs if they took whatever pay the
subcontracting agency set and accepted this third-party agency as
their direct employer.
This temp system was prolonged indefinitely, and some of these
previously non-temp employees are still working for ASUCLA as temps
to this day. Working for this agency, currently known as Star
Staffing Services, many workers receive minimum wage with few
benefits.
This means that these temp workers have no paid sick time, they
may use only one week of vacation time for every 2000 hours of work
in a 52-week period, and they must pay extra for short-term medical
and dental insurance. It also means they can be fired at any
moment, and ASUCLA itself cannot be held responsible for anything
that happens to them at the workplace. In contrast, full UC staff
enjoy numerous benefits as outlined on the UCBencom website.
Considering the amount of money temp agencies charge in general,
ASUCLA would do better to compensate their employees directly
rather than force them to earn less through this third-party.
If you’ve ever patronized the ASUCLA eateries,
you’ve seen these people. They are the ones who serve your
food, and the ones who pick up after you. They are also the ones
who clean Kerckhoff and Ackerman Union late at night when everybody
else has left. These people are mostly immigrants who just need a
job to support themselves and their families. They are willing to
take a minimum wage with no benefits because they need the money to
live. If you think your two-bedroom suite is crowded with four
people in it, imagine living in a bachelor apartment with two
families of four. That makes the dorms sound downright comfy. Many
of these workers also work more than one job, considering that both
often pay minimum wage.
ASUCLA has utilized several subcontracting agencies but kept
most of the same workers over the years. Most of these people have
been working for ASUCLA for two to ten years, are still considered
temp workers, and still receive a lower wage than student employees
who are just starting out.
ASUCLA needs to do something about this problem. UCLA as a whole
needs to do something about this problem, and we, as students,
definitely need to do something ourselves. These workers need to be
re-hired by ASUCLA directly; they need to receive the same benefits
package that all other UC full-time workers receive; they need to
receive a living wage so they can support their families; they need
a union so they can protect their job security; and these changes
need to happen now.