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Jane Fehlberg, who works as an administrative assistant at UC Berkeley, said she hasn’t chewed anything for three weeks. Her liquid diet consists largely of orange juice, soy protein, broth and vitamins. 

Fehlberg and about 20 other members of the Coalition of University Employees have embarked on hunger strikes to dramatize their low wages during their ongoing contract negotiations with the University of California system in Oakland. 

During their lunch breaks – a misnomer, perhaps – Wednesday, Fehlberg and other members of the local Coalition of University Employees marched around California Hall where offices of the school’s top administrators are located. 

Some of the local union members banged empty pots with wooden spoons, and others chanted and carried signs with such slogans as “Where’s our piece of the pie?” 

Building manager Fernando Brito has been fasting for two 24-hour periods a month for the last three weeks. 

“It’s one of the most effective things I can do,” he said. “At the end of this month if there is no response, I’ll increase it and keep doing so.” 

Wednesday marked the 21st day of Fehlberg’s hunger strike, dramatizing the wages paid by the university to its clerical employees statewide, which the union says are 21 percent below market rate. 

The 18,000-member union with 2,700 local members is asking for an 11 percent increase in wages. 

Sharon Hayden, assistant director of labor relations at UC’s Office of the President in Oakland and a negotiator for the university, said the union is correct in stating there is a 21 percent “lag.” 

“We recognize the lag and we want to give clerical employees more salary and give them some relief,” Hayden said. 

The university is committed to paying wage increases, Hayden said, although she admitted the amount of increase is not what the union is asking for. She explained that the wage package contains medical benefits, vacations and holidays. 

Hayden said the labor survey purchased by the university that indicates the 21 percent lag doesn’t take into account the differences between private and public sectors. She said a new survey is needed to indicate current market information. 

She said the 21 percent could have been “whittled down” as much as 7 percent if the union had accepted the university’s offer for a 3.5 percent increase for 1998-1999 and a 3.5 percent increase “on the table” for 1999-2000. 

Hayden said there would be some additional money to put into the clerical salaries, but the university doesn’t know how to implement it yet, because the needs of all the lower-paid employees must be considered first. 

“We’re asking for 6 percent (increase), retroactive from October, 1999 and for 5 percent from October, 2000,” said Elinor Levine, CUE president and secretary for two history professors in the East Asian Studies Department of UC Berkeley. 

The Oakland resident said “they have the money to pay us.” She and others in the local union referred Wednesday to a $1.9 billion reserve of funds held by the university. 

Hayden said she did not know the amount of the university’s reserve funds, but much of it is already targeted for construction to build new campuses. 

“Everybody has a reserve of some kind,” said Hayden, “so does the University of California.” 

The money is reserved for the long-term goals of the institution, she said. “We don’t want to be shortsighted.” 

According to Claudette Begin, the president of the local chapter of CUE, the university asks for a minimal amount for their salaries from Sacramento. “Then they come to us and they say this is all we’ll give you.” 

The local union leader said the university is not prioritizing salaries for their lower paid staff, while Chancellor Robert Berdahl and other administrators are paid market rates, she said. “There is a high turnover, and we are at the bottom.”