‘Mr. Peanut' Protests Poor Pay

UC Berkeley alumnus and campus worker Jon Rodney, left, came dressed as Mr. Peanut to a march at California Hall yesterday to protest pay raises for top-ranked UC administrators in a time of frozen wages for lower-paid university staff.

"I think the peanut is a perfect symbol for how UC views its workers," Rodney said, pointing up to the "UC pays peanuts" sign adorning his hat.

Rodney was joined by a handful of students and dozens of campus employees from five staff unions in his efforts to make a case to the administrators inside California Hall about the bargaining situation between the workers and UC, which has deadlocked on unions' demands for wage increases.

Employees pointed to pay raises for newly hired UC administrators, such as incoming Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, whose salary exceeds outgoing Chancellor Robert Berdahl's salary by 23.8 percent.

"If they can find the money for Birgeneau, they can find it for us," said John Zupan, president of the local chapter of University Professional and Technical Employees.

The university should divert the UC administrators' pay raises to salary increases for staff, said Amatullah Alaji-Sabrie, chief negotiator for the Coalition of University Employees.

"UC doesn't have a budget crisis. They have a distribution crisis," Alaji-Sabrie said.

UC and two unions have locked horns during contract negotiations over wage increases since the summer. Tensions stem from UC being unable to grant pay raises for workers in the past two years because of state budget cuts, said UC spokesperson Paul Schwartz.

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