By Albert Boime
Hel-lo! Does anyone recall the motto of our fair institution,
fiat lux? Are we in the business of optimizing and sharing our
metaphorical light of wisdom or do we prefer the business of the
bottom line?
Not so long ago, we finally granted the teaching assistants
collective bargaining rights and classification as full-time
employees. In this case, one could justify the strife on the
grounds of a paradigm shift from traditionally treating TAs as
apprentices to their new status as regular employees ““ an
evolution prompted by the recognition that sudden changes in the
economy could deprive them of the benefits seemingly etched in
stone.
The possibility that we are in it for the bottom line is about
to be realized as the current fiscal woes, coupled with the vast
losses incurred by the corrupt practices of Enron, WorldCom and
other Wall Street messes, are going to lead to all sorts of
creative cutbacks.
But it is one thing to find strategies for dealing with hard
times, and another to behave like Wal-Mart. What could possibly be
the excuse for treating non-student workers employed by the
Associated Students of UCLA as second-class citizens? On the one
hand, we gladly accept a $200 million donation for the medical
school to develop our noble goals of lifesaving benefits. But then
behave like corporate predators when it comes to our low-wage
workers on campus.
It may come as a surprise to the campus community that UCLA has
been depending upon giant employment services like Adecco, Spherion
and smaller outfits like Star Staffing Services of Beverly Hills to
provide a pool of temps for clerical positions, concessions and
food services. According to spokespersons of Adecco and Spherion,
they typically charge a 34 to 39 percent weekly markup on the wages
of each employee they provide. Star Staffing Services, provider of
the non-student workers, has been charging somewhat less at
approximately 32 to 33 percent.
This system, widely practiced by corporations, is known as
outsourcing the subcontracting of labor in order to override local
regulations, unionizing demands and benefits. The non-student
workers provided by Star Staffing Services start at less than our
student employees and receive no benefits.
A full-time non-student employee earning the minimum winds up
with an annual income of $14,040, less than half of what
constitutes a “living wage.” The Economic Policy
Institute set it at $30,000 a year for a family of one adult and
two children. This means UCLA has been paying a “poverty
wage” to approximately 75-80 full-time and part-time
employees. Is this policy consistent with our motto?
An employee of the ASUCLA restaurants praised the labor of the
non-student workers, observing they work the long hours and perform
the hard labor students cannot do at our numerous concession
events. Hence, they are as vital to the functioning of the
university as any other member of the administration, faculty and
staff, and deserve the same kind of respect and job security the
rest of us enjoy.
UCLA should be a preferred employer not for a privileged few but
for every member of its work force. To even devote one sector of
our campus to a low-wage workplace is not only to maintain the
national state of gross economic inequality but also to go against
the experience of 1996-1997, when the last minimum wage increase
actually helped fuel the high growth of the period.
It is good news to learn ASUCLA’s board of directors is at
last doing the right thing by recognizing the rights of non-student
workers to a union contract with the Association of Federal, State,
County and Municipal Employees, the service workers union at the
University of California ““ and benefits. They have also
recommended to the Office of the President a recognition agreement
which carries the right to bargain.
The UCLA students who fought for this recognition deserve credit
for bringing the issue into the open and pressuring the board of
directors to take the steps necessary to assume full responsibility
for the working conditions and treatment of non-student employees.
Hopefully, the proposed change will be authorized by UC President
Richard Atkinson before summer’s end. As much as the Geffens,
the Reagans and the Broads, these nameless donors also contribute
through their labor to making this institution of higher learning a
place of light for the local and global community.
What the university stands for should go beyond the issues of
wages and poverty, serving as a role model for an enlightened
society and advancing the means to eliminate economic inequality.
We should not forget U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s
statement when he sent his Fair Labor Standards bill to Congress in
1937. America should be able to give working men and women “a
fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.” By
depriving non-student workers of a living wage, the workers in
effect have been subsidizing the administration, faculty and staff
who enjoy the fruits of their unpaid labor.
As the university strives to compete effectively in the
marketplace of higher education, let us not dim the light in
confounding the institution with a corporate entity but let the
light radiate to all parts of the world as a beacon of wisdom and
social justice.