About a month ago, I wrote about an employee at the International House on the UC Berkeley campus who said that managerial demands and certain employment practices had led him to feel harassed at work.
Now, I am following up in an effort to learn which issues have been resolved, which still remain and what sorts of solutions are in progress.
When I first spoke with the employee, he alleged that his supervisors required that he perform his standard duties in a fraction of the regular time, leading him to worry about keeping his job. He also expressed frustration with the hiring of temporary contracted workers, who were meant to fill short-term vacancies but, according to the employee, were in fact used by management as a more lasting response to I-House’s chronic understaffing.
After hearing what the employee had to say, I then spoke with the executive director of I-House, Martin Brennan, to hear an administrative perspective.
Brennan said that while temporary workers are intended to fill transient staffing shortages, some have been used to fill posts that have not been staffed for months. Last semester, I-House managers outlined a plan to fill these vacancies and increase the number of career employees on staff. When I spoke with Brennan last month, several of these positions were still empty.
Here’s what’s new: The employee whom I spoke with said that after he took his case to his union — the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 — his supervisors dropped their demands.
When I spoke with Brennan a second time, he said he was sorry to hear employees were concerned about their job security. He went on to say that in the past month, one of the three empty kitchen positions — posts that were being staffed by temporary workers — had been filled.
While this marks progress in the implementation of last semester’s plan to fill such vacancies with career employees, some current I-House staff would like management to pick up the pace.
On Wednesday afternoon, just over a dozen union members and students gathered on the front steps of I-House, armed with picket signs reading “Stop contracting out our workers’ jobs.” The protest was the latest in a long string of demonstrations against the hiring of temporary employees, but it lacked the zest of protests last spring.
Jake Casillas, an assistant cook who is still finishing the six-month probationary period required of all university employees before they become career staff, described the frustration of working as an assistant to a temporary employee filling the empty chef position: “We’re supposed to train and familiarize the lead and then not take credit for it,” he said. “If we get somebody who has been here a couple times, we’re cool with it. But with every new person, it’s like another job.” He went on to say that when temporary employees drop the ball, career and probationary employees are the ones who have to pick it up.
“We have to compensate for everything, make sure everything gets done in the kitchen. I was working seven days a week, covering every shift I could,” he continued. “I’m here all the time — I work all the time.”
Every employee I spoke with said the I-House kitchen staff was still overextended. Joseph Soberano, a senior food service worker, said his workload is difficult to do on his own when the other employee meant to help him fails to show up for work.
“I only have two hands,” he said.
“All I can do is go as fast as I could.” Rodrigo Aguilar, another senior food service worker, described a similar situation in the dishroom.
Two employees usually cover his shift. However, when the other worker calls in sick, he has to do double the load, Aguilar said.
Both management and staff cited the current economic climate as another source of unease.
“The United States is going towards more of an aggressive capitalism that is less respectful of worker rights,” Brennan said. “I want workers to have those rights.” At the same time, Brennan also said that I-House is trying to innovate in terms of services and staffing to find better ways to meet expectations without raising residents’ rent.
Employees say they have a hard enough time meeting the management’s existing requirements and expressed concern that they might not be able to meet these new expectations, potentially jeopardizing their jobs.
Despite Brennan’s assurances that he did not want anyone to feel pressured, it remains to be seen if employees’ concerns are well-founded.
In the meantime, it seems that while efforts are under way to cut down on contracted staff, according to many the progress is too slow, and the problem of understaffing persists.
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