By Rachel Makabi
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
[email protected]
Active students are usually at the forefront of major issues,
not the center.
But a few hundred students rallying against the Associated
Students of UCLA for more than a month on behalf of non-student
workers’ right to unionize find themselves in the middle of a
heated debate between the association and the union representing
the workers.
Both the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees ““ the union negotiating the workers’ behalf
““ and ASUCLA accuse each other of working against
students’ interests.
While AFSCME argues that the ASUCLA board of directors should
follow the interests of the few hundred students who want workers
to receive higher wages with benefits, ASUCLA executives say the
high cost will force the association to make cuts that will have a
detrimental effect on the entire student body.
In response to ASUCLA concerns that the union is not acting in
the students’ interests, AFSCME organizer Brian Rudiger said
that as a union, AFSCME’s priority is helping the
workers.
“We are a union. Our primary concern is the workers of the
University of California,” he said.
The association says it has already reduced funding to student
governments and has reduced merit increases for its career
employees.
Though ASUCLA passed a resolution urging the UC Office of the
President to enter discussions with AFSCME to recognize a union,
board members have repeatedly said the $500,000 to $1 million cost
will force the association to make cuts in student services.
Nevertheless, many students say they still support the workers,
adding that ASUCLA should make students its priority, not the
bottom line.
“If the cost of doing the right thing will screw up
ASUCLA’s infrastructure, then they should change their
business model,” Francisco Garcia, first-year graduate
student in urban planning, said at a barbecue Monday for students,
workers and their families.
ASUCLA officials say they are already running on a tight budget
and cannot afford to make other cuts.
First-year undeclared student Stephanie Mazariego said she
supports the workers, though they are not students, because she
relates to their struggles for justice.
In contrast, Mazariego said she does not understand the purpose
of ASUCLA, adding that many other first-years did not even know
what the association was until the union issue surfaced on campus a
little over a month ago.
Other students echoed Mazariego’s sentiments.
“Though the students have a majority on the board, what we
have learned is that students just put a rubber stamp on what the
board of directors proposes,” said third-year political
science student Seth Cohen.
Undergraduate BOD student representative Jared Seltzer
disagreed, saying that if students felt that their representatives
were disconnected from them, they should have invited the BOD
members to the barbecue.
“If the sole purpose is to have discussions between the
students and the workers, what possible reason would they have for
not inviting undergraduate BOD representatives, who are students
and who are their representatives?” Seltzer said.