The Labor Justice Project – a student organization formed last semester – held a “Day of Action for Economic Justice and Campus Workers” Wednesday, aiming to make visible the struggles of low-wage workers at UC Berkeley.
The day began when a group comprised of over a dozen International House employees, several students and an organizer from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 gathered at I-House at 10 a.m. After briefly outlining how they would present a petition about labor practices, they gave the document to I-House Chief Financial Officer Shirley Spiller.
The petition – which gathered 19 signatures after circulating among I-House employees for the last few weeks – addresses labor practices mandated or proposed by I-House management that workers deem to be unfair, according to Sarah Leadem, a UC Berkeley senior and the co-founder and organizer of the project.
Leadem said such detrimental practices include the implementation of worker background checks and a proposal to have rotating worker schedules. She said this new rotating system would force workers to take on jobs that are outside their normal roles.
Executive Director of I-House Martin Brennan said that this rotating system is in the “proposal stage” and was designed because “we thought the employees might find it interesting to do different things, rather than doing the same thing all of the time.”
Roque Arevalo, a senior storekeeper at I-House, said I-House management is having custodians who lack proper training doing maintenance work such as changing light bulbs. Workers believe this practice compromises their safety and that they should receive compensation for doing such tasks, according to Arevalo.
Additionally, the petition seeks to stop a proposal that would require I-House workers to clock in and out for 15-minute breaks, something that Leadem said is not required at other campus dining commons.
“We just want to be treated like our campus brothers and sisters,” Arevalo said.
According to Leadem, the project met its goal of gathering 200 signatures Friday. They plan to present these signatures, along with any more collected in the upcoming week or two, to I-House management to show student support for the causes listed in the workers’ petition.
The project is also trying to build up student support for all campus workers before the AFSCME Local 3299 union goes into contract negotiations with UC later this year, Leadem said.
I-House management and workers will have a formal meeting next Friday, but Arevalo is not hopeful that the meeting will yield immediate results.
“It’s going to continue; it’s not going to end there,” Arevalo said. “Because of the way I’ve seen how the I-House has been managed all these years and how they’ve been able to get away with stuff they shouldn’t have … it needs to change.”
However, Brennan said that the management wants to “find solutions for everyone” and welcomes a dialogue with both I-House employees and AFSCME.
As part of the Day of Action, the project planned a photo booth on Sproul Plaza where students can take a picture holding a sign to demonstrate their support for campus workers and a movie screening for Wednesday evening.
In addition to demonstrating solidarity between students and campus workers, the day is also meant to commemorate the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike. The documentary “At the River I Stand” – which centers on the 1,300 black sanitation workers who started a labor strike in Memphis in 1968 – was screened Wednesday night.
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I House has over a dozen employees and a CFO? And the example of dangerous work that should have higher compensation is changing a light bulb? Good thing they are going to students for support, because I don’t think the working public would be very sympathetic.
How many employees does it take to change a lightbulb? Just one if you pay them enough…
In fact, the International House staff is comprised over 75 career and casual staff employees. International House is a private non-profit foundation that was founded by the Rockellers. The staff at International House is similiar to the staff on campus in that there is very specific job descriptions for any particular position. For clarification custodians are responsible for cleaning etc while maintenance staff are responsible for repairs.
Thanks for the information. That is a lot of workers for a dorm with 600 residents. Does it operate like a hotel where the students get daily change of bedding, or is it like the dorms?
So um how exactly are background checks unfair?
They aren’t unfair whatsoever – this is merely another example of the off-the-charts fruitloopery of the far left.
Background checks have been instituted all over campus, this is a matter of the union being notified of new policies and procedures for their members before they go into effect.
Background checks are not unfair. To clarify, the policy is that the union must be notified before a new policy is put into place for the union members.