Bruin shouldn’t slight workers
Reading The Bruin is a daily “treat” where the news
is often lost within the editorial board’s opinions.
Thankfully, the short-sighted editorial board’s opinion was
in the right place this time, and not in the News section.
In The Bruin’s editorial last Thursday (“Blind
support of union irresponsible,” Viewpoint, May 13), the
editorial board claimed that the undergrad reps on the ASUCLA Board
of Directors were blindly spearheading the campaign for increased
workers’ rights, pointing to the heavy financial implications
of providing living wages and benefits to the workers. Yet as we
all know, higher wages and increased benefits cost money.
Not only is the board of directors responsible for a
financially stable student union that benefits students overall,
but also for a stable student union for its workers ““
even if they are non-students. Thus we see true social and moral
responsibility where we must balance financial stability with
workers’ rights, affording ASUCLA workers the same rights and
benefits as the rest of the UCLA community. While the Bruin may see
the workers “cause” as completely disconnected from the
students and ASUCLA’s mission, I ask The Bruin to
consider how stable ““ both functionally and
financially”“ a union we would have without the workers who
cook our food, run our eateries and clean up after our
mess.
So, is the moral question of providing the workers with the
basic rights they deserve to be determined by finances?
To answer anything but “no” shows true
irresponsibility, as such a response indicates that ASUCLA is
nothing more than a corporation where monetary figures are
equivalent to human lives.
I am ashamed that The Bruin, a student newspaper, lacks
understanding and disregards the depth of this issue. This is not
about AFSCME, it is about the workers and maintaining moral
responsibility for the welfare of the UCLA and ASUCLA community. As
an undergraduate student board member of ASUCLA, I recognize that
this will have financial implications on our student union. But as
a responsible member of the board, I also recognize that my role is
to attend to managerial policies so as to create a sustainable
union for the students and the workers. The money that the Board
manages helps maintain a student union which we as an ASUCLA
community can benefit and develop from. That community includes
workers!
Reem Salahi Undergraduate ASUCLA Board
representative
One-sided coverage shows bias
I was surprised and angered at the Daily Bruin’s attempts
to undermine the voice of the student body on the day of the ASUCLA
Board of Directors meeting. While the board was passing a
resolution in support of workers’ rights at UCLA, Timothy
Kudo’s article “Union could cost ASUCLA dearly,”
(News, May 10) seemed to be a tactic ““ and very effective one
““ to divide the students on an issue they have already shown
support for.
A biased article that was filled with the negative rhetoric of
“costs” and “risks,” the article
effectively reduced the lives of UCLA workers to mere numbers in an
equation. To add insult to injury, The Bruin then continued its
vendetta against a student supported initiative by publishing an
editorial that, in effect, says paying UCLA workers fair wages is
irrational. The editorial depicts this issue as one that is driven
by overzealous union organizers and their mindless student
followers that are just looking for a cause ““ any cause. Give
us some credit.
Thousands of UCLA students have signed petitions in support of
UCLA workers because they have pride in their university. They
realize that for this institution to stand for anything, it must
carry out actions that support a greater social consciousness, and
are not bound by the bubble that is Westwood. Students realize that
supporting UCLA workers has a greater impact than one which can be
measured monetarily. Maybe it’s time the Daily Bruin realized
that as well.
Jessica Espinosa First-year Political science and
English