BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Antonio
Villaraigosa (left) speaks with ASUCLA employees Alvaro
Gutierrez, Luz Real and Rosa Alvarado outside LuValle Commons on
Thursday about their attempt to unionize.
By Kelly Rayburn
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFF
[email protected]
Braulio Morales wears an Associated Students of UCLA uniform and
works in the kitchen of an ASUCLA restaurant, but his pay check
comes from a temp agency.
Antonio Villaraigosa found that troubling.
Villaraigosa, the former speaker of the state assembly who lost
in a bid to become Los Angeles’ mayor, came to UCLA Thursday
to throw his political weight behind the effort to unionize about
100 non-student ASUCLA workers.
“No one deserves to work like an animal without
benefits,” he told a group of workers outside LuValle
Commons.
As the UC office of the president currently awaits to begin
negotiations with the American Federation of State, County and
Municipal Employees, Villaraigosa called the current working
conditions of the non-student temporary workers ““Â many
of whom work full-time hours with low pay and no benefits
““Â an “abomination.”
Villaraigosa shook hands and embraced workers like Hildo
Sandoval, who has worked at UCLA for five years and said she earns
“el minimo” without sick leave, a pension or vacation
time.
“Vamos a ganar (We will win),” Villaraigosa told the
workers.
In 1995, ASUCLA was threatened with bankruptcy and reverted to
hiring workers from a temp agency to lower its costs. Though
workers say the association said all along it would hire them as
ASUCLA employees who would receive benefits, seven years later
ASUCLA still relies on about 100 temp workers to help run its
restaurants and stores.
While Villaraigosa said the unionizing issue is a question with
no gray area, ASUCLA board members say they have serious concerns
about the expense involved in unionizing, which could cost anywhere
from $500,000 to $1 million. Though ASUCLA passed a resolution
urging the UC Office of the President to begin negotiations with
AFSCME, ASUCLA finance director Rich Delia said unionizing cost
could potentially send the association into bankruptcy.
Villaraigosa, however, said there’s no reason an entity
that makes $73 million a year cannot spend a small portion of that
to give workers higher wages and benefits ““ to “do the
right thing.”
Villaraigosa, who served as an ex officio member of the UC Board
of Regents when he was speaker, said he will write to UC President
Richard Atkinson to “properly brief” him on the matter
and plans to broaden the base of support for the workers among
state legislators.
UC Spokesman Paul Schwartz, meanwhile, said the university is
working closely with AFSCME to take the “best approach”
in dealing with the group of workers and that outside views from
Villaraigosa or the state legislature are appreciated.
ASUCLA Executive Director Patricia Eastman had little reaction
to Villaraigosa’s campus visit, saying she did not know he
was coming.
Eastman said Villaraigosa’s viewpoints will not affect her
in any decisions she will make regarding the workers but added,
“I don’t speak for everyone.”
Villaraigosa, who served for six years as a state assemblyman
from Los Angeles and lost to James Hahn in last year’s
mayoral reaction, co-taught a class in UCLA’s education
department in the fall.