UC workers rally for raises, may strike later in month
Clerical workers at UC Berkeley say they will not give up until they get what the want.
They spent their ninth consecutive Wednesday lunch break marching around California Hall, where the office of Chancellor Robert Berdahl is located. They hope to pressure the administration for a wage increase they say would bring them closer to market level salaries.
While negotiations continue at the UC President’s office in Oakland, the clerical workers, currently working under an old contract, say they may go on strike later this month if new contracts aren’t approved soon.
“We were kind of hoping that we could march once and get it over with,” said Kathleen Parsons, who works in the molecular and cell biology department. “We have realized that it was going to be a long struggle.”
Some 75 people showed up at the noontime rally, wearing shirts saying “I work for free on Friday,” carrying signs and clanging noisemakers of all kinds to make as loud of a statement as possible.
The group circled the building twice, walked to the nearby Faculty Club and returned in time to make it back to their various offices.
Meanwhile, 15 of the demonstrators hopped a van to Oakland and met up with another 50 people outside UC president Richard Atkinson’s office, where they also demonstrated.
“The demonstrations in Oakland went great,” said Nick Slater, in a phone interview later Wednesday afternoon. Slater is a UC clerical employee who organized the trip to Oakland.
“We were asked to leave by security, but we refused because we were on a public sidewalk.” he said.
The union is asking for a retroactive raise of six percent for last year and five percent for this year. They contend market-level salaries on average are 21 percent higher than what UC workers earn, and many complain that their pay is not high enough to meet the cost of living in the Bay Area.
Clerical Union Employees President Eleanor Levine contends that the money is there. The university has $1.9 million in surplus from last year that could be used to give clerical workers their raises, she says, adding that money is being used for construction at various campuses.
The university, which did not return calls, is now offering clericals a 4.5 percent increase effective Oct. 1 and an additional 1 percent effective April 1, 2001. It is offering no merit increases, however, and the union says it ought to.
The demonstrators argue that while UC will not grant the 18,000 clerical workers represented by CUE the salary increases they are asking for, it gave its top-level administrators 24 percent increases over the last two years.
“They take care of their own and we are like the worker bees,” said Jane Fehlberg, an administrative assistant who was on a six-week hunger strike earlier this summer but now fasts on Wednesdays.
“I didn’t think they would let me go that long (on a hunger strike) but they did. They don’t care, that is clear.”
The clerical employees are beginning to get some support from other university-related unions and other faculty. Lunchtime demonstrations began in June with only a dozen or so people, but have grown each week and included as many as 200 people.
Fehlberg said the demonstrators may put on political theater in future weeks.
“There’s something good about (demonstrating),” Parsons said. “We are getting people moving around and actually doing stuff. People who were afraid to speak out or didn’t know what to do, were just frustrated. They thought their only alternative was to quit. Now people are a little more bold.” biology department. “We have realized that it was going to be a long struggle.”
Some 75 people showed up at the noontime rally, wearing shirts saying “I work for free on Friday,” carrying signs and clanging noisemakers of all kinds to make as loud of a statement as possible.
The group circled the building twice, walked to the nearby Faculty Club and returned in time to make it back to their various offices.
Meanwhile, 15 of the demonstrators hopped a van to Oakland and met up with another 50 people outside UC president Richard Atkinson’s office, where they also demonstrated.
“The demonstrations in Oakland went great,” said Nick Slater, in a phone interview later Wednesday afternoon. Slater is a UC clerical employee who organized the trip to Oakland.
“We were asked to leave by security, but we refused because we were on a public sidewalk.” he said.
The union is asking for a retroactive raise of six percent for last year and five percent for this year. They contend market-level salaries on average are 21 percent higher than what UC workers earn, and many complain that their pay is not high enough to meet the cost of living in the Bay Area.
Clerical Union Employees President Eleanor Levine contends that the money is there. The university has $1.9 million in surplus from last year that could be used to give clerical workers their raises, she says, adding that money is being used for construction at various campuses.
The university, which did not return calls, is now offering clericals a 4.5 percent increase effective Oct. 1 and an additional 1 percent effective April 1, 2001. It is offering no merit increases, however, and the union says it ought to.
The demonstrators argue that while UC will not grant the 18,000 clerical workers represented by CUE the salary increases they are asking for, it gave its top-level administrators 24 percent increases over the last two years.
“They take care of their own and we are like the worker bees,” said Jane Fehlberg, an administrative assistant who was on a six-week hunger strike earlier this summer but now fasts on Wednesdays.
“I didn’t think they would let me go that long (on a hunger strike) but they did. They don’t care, that is clear.”
The clerical employees are beginning to get some support from other university-related unions and other faculty. Lunchtime demonstrations began in June with only a dozen or so people, but have grown each week and included as many as 200 people.
Fehlberg said the demonstrators may put on political theater in future weeks.
“There’s something good about (demonstrating),” Parsons said. “We are getting people moving around and actually doing stuff. People who were afraid to speak out or didn’t know what to do, were just frustrated. They thought their only alternative was to quit. Now people are a little more bold.”
