Students and other members of the UC Berkeley community rallied alongside campus service workers on Sproul Plaza Thursday afternoon demanding that the campus rehire workers who will be laid off in November.
A group of about 50 protesters rallied at the intersection of Telegraph Avenue and Bancroft Way, criticizing the campus for plans to lay off the service workers and demanding that the UC support a state Senate bill that would allow graduate student researchers to unionize.
About five UCPD officers were at the scene to monitor the protest.
Students who took part in the protest said they wanted to show solidarity with the workers.
Students are often unaware of workers’ financial situations, said Isaac Kreisman, a UC Berkeley senior and member of Students for a Democratic University.
“It’s important to support them and make connections with students (who face) fee hikes,” he said.
Thursday’s protest was led by members of AFSCME Local 3299, a union representing service and patient care workers at the university, and coincided with protests at other UC campuses and medical centers. The union is currently working with UC officials to renegotiate terms of a contract between the two parties that expires at the end of the month, according to campus spokesperson Janet Gilmore.
Other groups also took part in the protest, including activist group BAMN. Aside from voicing support for the bill that would allow graduate student researchers to unionize, some protesters demanded that UC Berkeley become a “sanctuary campus” for undocumented students and increase the number of underrepresented minority students it enrolls.
According to BAMN organizer Justin Cheong, the organization wants to see UC Berkeley double the number of underrepresented minorities it enrolls.
Still, the protest centered around the five ASUC Auxiliary custodial workers who were notified in late August that they would be laid off from their jobs at Eshleman Hall, effective Nov. 1. All five attended the protest Thursday.
According to Gilmore, their jobs were terminated because Eshleman Hall is scheduled to be demolished as part of the Lower Sproul Redevelopment project. She added that the campus is working with the custodians to find them positions elsewhere on campus but cannot guarantee them another position.
“We were told if they demolish the building, there will not be enough offices to clean, and the Martin Luther King Jr. building will be remodeled too, so (the campus) is not going to need custodians,” said Ruben Reyes, one of the five workers who will be laid off.
Reyes said that because he and the other four custodians had worked at the campus for at least six years, it was unfair for them to be laid off without the guarantee of a replacement job.
Contact Lindsey Lohman at [email protected]
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BAMN is a pariah organization at Cal. They work with no one and get nothing done but whine, yell and scream. They were not involved in the Day of Action on the 27th and will never be involved in the Labor Justice Project that hosted the Action. BAMN cares more about their own moral righteousness than they do about improving our society.
Lib infested Cali government FAILS…
Due to high taxes, burdensome regulations, lack of public sector reforms, and a lackluster job climate, more people have left California than come to the state since 2005, according to a comprehensive study by the Manhattan Institute released on Tuesday, suggesting California is no longer “perceived by most Americans as the land where dreams come true.”
Since 1990, California has lost nearly 4.2 million people, with net domestic out-migration averaging 225,00 residents a year. Between 2000 and 2010, out-migration has resulted in lost income of 5.67 billion to Nevada, $4.96 billion to Arizona, $4.07 to Texas, and $3.85 billion to Oregon.
And we wonder why Cal is headed down the shitter. Maybe if we had more Lib Pols, tax increases, illegals and other deadenders things will turn around.
The pathetic part is that these libs are so in love with places such as Europe, where unions and government squabble over shit continually and nothing ever gets done in a timely manner.
Yudof? Is that you? Really?
“According to BAMN organizer Justin Cheong, the organization wants to see
UC Berkeley double the number of underrepresented minorities it
enrolls.”
Justin Cheong has been a BAMN agitator for years and has already graduated. How convenient that he doesn’t have to give up his place at Cal to an underrepresented minority.
Thanks to Bain, UC has a new building way down on 4th street they will lease to house what they call “Shared Services”. So, their “Operational Excellence” plan must include not cleaning this space by already employed custodians? Will the Administrative and technical staff being moved there from offices they’re housed in on cambus “share ” custodial duties? UC always attacks the lowest to create further opulence for the highest. Who cleans Yudof’s mansion? Who cleans the University House?
Probably graduates who majored in something useless like Art History.
And are shocked, just shocked, that they weren’t able to land a $60K/year job with full benefits upon graduation.