Justice for the Workers of the University of California!

Janet Napolitano, President of the UC; Peter Chester, Executive Director of the Systemwide Labor Relations Office; all Chancellors of the UC system

The students of the University of California demand respect, dignity, and fair contracts for the frontline workers who make our campuses function!

AFSCME 3299, UPTE-CWA 9119, and UC-AFT - labor unions which represent workers at the University of the California - have been in contract negotiations with the UC for many months. Throughout the bargaining process, the UC has continuously denied our workers the respect, dignity and fair contracts they deserve.

The UC system claims to champion the virtue of equality, and it has even described itself as a “pioneer” in the struggle to create a more equitable society. Meanwhile, it is denying our workers basic job security, living wages, racial and gender pay equity, and more. The University of California must stop exploiting its workers and honor its purported commitment to equality with a fair contract for UC workers.

Us students of the UC system have thus come together to declare our support for our UC labor unions and to demand for the UC to provide our workers with the respect, dignity, and fair contracts they deserve. We urge you to sign on and join us in the struggle for campus labor justice!


UC STUDENT DEMANDS IN SOLIDARITY WITH UC WORKERS:

We, the students of the University of California, in order to promote social and economic justice, demand that our UC system: (1) Provide livable wages and stable benefits and retirements to all UC workers; (2) End subcontracting practices; (3) Terminate all direct and secondary ties with federal immigration agencies unless legally required; (4) Divest from companies complicit in the violation of Palestinian human rights; (5) Prohibit the deployment of UCPD to on-campus actions; (6) Guarantee academic freedom to academic librarians; and (7) Satisfy the bargaining demands of all UC labor unions. We request an official public response to these demands by January 15th, 2019.

  1. PROVIDE LIVABLE WAGES AND STABLE BENEFITS AND RETIREMENTS TO ALL UC WORKERS: The UC will increase wages for all UC workers to meet and keep pace with the real cost of living in California as well as in areas within a reasonable commuting distance (no more than an hour drive) from the workplace in order to decrease time spent away from families, contributing to pollution, and contributing to highway congestion, and to be competitive among UC’s peer institutions; protect existing healthcare benefits by freezing healthcare premiums and co-pay costs for workers, and make no increases to healthcare costs; protect existing pension benefits by rescinding all 401(k) style/403(b) retirement opt-out plans from any and all contract proposals to UC labor unions;  

    1. END PAY INEQUITIES: redress disparities - specifically in hiring, promotion, and resultant pay levels - between workers who are white men and workers who are women of color, people of color, womxn and non-binary folx -- with particular attention to the racial and gendered pay disparities that affect Black women employees represented by AFSCME 3299; compensate all currently subcontracted employees with wages and benefits that equal the wages and benefits of their in-sourced counterparts, with compensation provided from the date and time of first employment to date and time of acceptance of demands; increase wages for student workers to equal that of their career worker counterparts;

  2. END SUBCONTRACTING PRACTICES: UC will stop outsourcing jobs to unprotected third-party companies/corporations/students; hire in all currently subcontracted employees, then end all subcontracting agreements with third-party companies/corporations; UC will hire 100% in-sourced, unionized labor for all new on-campus housing construction projects including Public Private Partnerships (P3’s); UCs will not hire student workers to replace campus career workers in campus jobs;

    1. ADDRESS UNDERSTAFFING ISSUES: redress understaffing issues in campus dining halls and all other UC workplaces by hiring more full-time career workers;
    2. MEET OTHER JOB SECURITY DEMANDS: Offer full-time work to
      part-time employees; end emergency layoffs; retrain workers for vacant positions instead of instituting layoffs;

  3. NO COMPLICITY, NO COLLABORATION: University of California and its police departments will not comply with nor be placed under the supervision of the federal immigration agencies and authorities regarding investigations, raids, detentions and/or deportations, unless mandated by a judicial warrant, a subpoena, or a court order; UC will establish and enforce policies that prohibit immigration enforcement and deportation activities on grounds and premises under UC  jurisdiction; every UC will enshrine the UC’s “Statement of Principles in Support of Undocumented Members of the UC Community” in their official policies; apply AFSCME 3299 immigrant rights provisions to all workers and expand provisions related to Social Security “no-match” letters; prohibit the use of E-Verify;

    1. DIVEST FROM THE U.S. DEPORTATION REGIME: Every campus, medical center, and property managed by the UC - and every UC official - will withdraw from all contracts and agreements with any company, corporation, and organization that participates in or profits off of the detention, deportation, and/or surveillance of immigrants and asylum seekers, including, but not limited to, General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), Maxim Healthcare Services, and ABM Industry Groups; end all investments in financial institutions that are linked to immigrant detention centers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP);

  4. DIVEST FROM COMPANIES COMPLICIT IN THE VIOLATION OF PALESTINIAN HUMAN RIGHTS: The University of California System will disinvest all tuition dollars, investments, and stocks from the following companies that have violated the universal right “to life, liberty, and security of person;” “to education;” to “privacy, family [and] home;” “to own property, and …[not to] be arbitrarily deprived of property” and consequently violate Palestinian human rights including, but not limited to, Lockheed Martin, United Tech, Boeing, G.E., HP, Caterpillar, Ford, Hyundai,Cemex, Raytheon, 3M, Northrop Grumman, Perrigo Company, and Atlas Copco;

  5. END THE DEPLOYMENT OF POLICE TO ON-CAMPUS ACTIONS: Prohibit use of all police and militarized forces, including UCPD, surveillance, and task forces against student and/or worker protests, rallies, sit-ins, walkouts, strikes or civil disobedience; aggressively pursue justice and accountability in cases of excessive use of force against Black people, other people of color, and queer and trans people; where related to aforementioned on-campus actions, drop existing student conduct charges, drop existing charges against workers, and going forward do not pursue punitive paths against historically policed students and workers; disarm the UCPD, and specifically prohibit the use and possession of riot gear by any police force on grounds and premises under UC jurisdiction; do not bring in additional police outside of UCPD, including, but not limited to, California Highway Patrol;

  6. GUARANTEE ACADEMIC FREEDOM TO ACADEMIC LIBRARIANS: Amend Article 1 in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for UC-AFT bargaining Unit 17 to articulate that librarians are afforded the same protections under the principles of academic freedom as currently granted to senate faculty, lecturers, and students, and do so to the satisfaction of the union UC-AFT;

  7. SATISFY THE BARGAINING DEMANDS OF ALL UC LABOR UNIONS: This includes, but is not limited to, the entire set of bargaining demands from AFSCME 3299, UPTE-CWA 9119, and UC-AFT; and

  8. ADDRESSING THE CHANCELLORS OF THE UC SYSTEM: For all of the listed demands whose implementation lies outside of the jurisdiction of individual UC campuses, each UC Chancellor shall publicly endorse these demands; vocalize their support for these demands to the University of California Office of the President, to the University of California Labor Relations Office, and to all relevant statewide UC bodies; perform all actions within their power to ensure the passage of these demands on a statewide level; and create and implement policies at each UC campus that are commensurate with each proposed statewide demand, and will do so to the furthest extent of each Chancellor’s jurisdictional power.

CAMPUS SPECIFIC DEMANDS

These demands, though specific to each campus, are endorsed by the entire list of signatories disclosed at the end of this document.

UC Davis

  1. JUSTICE FOR UCD WORKERS & STUDENTS: Honor and meet the coming student demands by those directly impacted from the assault inflicted on students and workers from a UC Davis official on October 25, 2018, the last day of AFSCME 3299’s strike.

  2. STOP OUTSOURCING:

    1. LONG RANGE DEVELOPMENT PLAN & CURRENT P3 HOUSING: Public Private Partnerships must not outsource UC jobs at P3 developments such as the newly anticipated long range development plan at West Village & Orchard Park and move to insource currently outsourced workers at P3 housing developments. UCD Administration must add workforce housing to their housing Long Range Development Plan. This housing must be made available to and staffed by university union workers. Students demand that housing shouldn’t come at the expense of workers quality of life.

    2. AGGIE SQUARE: UC Davis construction of the new innovation hub in Oak Park, Sacramento will outsource many UC jobs including some of those who are already employed at the UC Davis Medical Center. These workers will be let go and will need to apply at the new UC Davis Rehabilitation Center lead by Kindred Healthcare if they wish to continue work.  We demand that UC Davis puts a stop to outsourcing of UC jobs at Aggie Square which contributes to the income, race, and gender inequality.

  3. CHANCELLOR MAY MUST COMPLETELY DISAFFILIATE FROM LEIDOS AND ALL OTHER OUTSIDE COMPANIES. This is in accordance with demand 3a above general. Outside board seats take time away from serving student and worker needs which should be the sole job of a university chancellor.  They also frequently lead to conflicts of interest as we saw with former Chancellor Linda Katehi’s outside board seats. More specifically, Leidos is part of the militarized surveillance state on the U.S.-Mexico border and directly benefits from Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda.

  4. REALLOCATING FUNDS TO WORKER & STUDENTS NEEDS. Redirect resources away from administrative compensation, policing, and surveillance, including the $5 million recently allocated to surveillance measures, and use them to meet student and worker needs instead.

  5. CONTINUE MEETINGS BETWEEN STUDENT COMMUNITIES AND CAMPUS ADMINISTRATORS: These meetings were implemented after a multi-day sit-in on the first floor of the administration building, Mrak Hall, last year to protest a proposed tuition hike while demanding a more democratic structure which would give students and workers more direct control over the decisions that affect their everyday lives.  Implement the proposals that were brought up in these meetings last year.

  6. EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK FOR UC DAVIS SUMMER INSTRUCTORS.
    A summer session course is supposed to be the equivalent of a course that happens during the normal academic year. Undergraduate students get full course credit, and they pay for a full course.
    However, graduate students hired as instructors to teach these courses only get a fraction (about 2/3rd) of the pay they would get for teaching the same exact course during the normal academic year. Often, these graduate student instructors actually put in more in-class hours. In many situations courses that would normally have a Teaching Assistant don't, which puts more instructional and grading duties on these summer instructors who are making less than what they make during the normal academic year with a TA to assist them.
    We demand that UC Davis recognize the amount of work that graduate student summer session instructors put into these courses, and that UC Davis compensate them as such - by paying them the amount they make for teaching the same course during the normal academic year.

UC Los Angeles

  1. JUSTICE FOR THE VALETS: Hire in all the subcontracted valets at Ronald Reagan Medical Center (RRMC) who were displaced from their jobs after UCLA ended its contract with ABM; provide permanent, adequate ventilation in the parking garages of RRMC, in compliance with OSHA standards;

UC Merced

  1. PROVIDE HOUSING STAFF WITH A PROPER BREAK ROOM: Recently UC Merced service workers had their break room taken away to allocate the space for a food pantry. UC Merced students experience food insecurity which led to the opening of our first food pantry in TC 131 through Basic Needs Security.  

    1. Although students needed a food pantry, students also demand that service workers be given an adequate break room fit for all employees to use.

  2. REINSTATE RAFAEL FLORES: This university continued its campaign against Rafael Flores, a service worker who worked for housing, MAT leader, and union activist, by retaliating and preventing him from due process. Labor Relations must hold supervisors accountable for injustices and retaliation. We must hold Labor Relations accountable for circumventing worker protection and not allowing Rafael Flores a fair and just procedural hearing. The UC continues to suppress union activity and the outspoken voices of workers here on campus.

    1. Students demand a proper investigation with full access to all testimonies, names, and statements.

  3. TITLE IV INVESTIGATION: Supervisors at UC Merced are overly exerting their power and breaking policies. After multiple conversations, labor relations has been asked to open up an investigation due to the misconduct of the supervisors primarily the night shift (graveyard shift). Graveyard supervisor relentlessly harasses multiple workers during their shift. There was a specific situation this school year in which a police report was taken with key witnesses, one of them being a student.

    1. Students demand that investigations of Title IV are opened and that supervisors are fired and held accountable. Students demand that service workers who experience any violence/harassment are to be protected by the university so that they will not be retaliated against while a full investigation is being conducted.

  4. PROVIDE BASIC NEEDS FOR WORKERS: UC Merced service workers lack some of the basic needs resources and information to ease their jobs responsibilities.

    1. All service workers should have access to park on Scholars Parking lot without having to pay for a car registration pass.

    2. Educational services.

    3. In the event that campus is closed, service workers should be given the option to also evacuate campus.

  5. UNDERSTAFFING WORKERS: Since the establishment of UC Merced in 2005 there has been a continual understaffing of workers. It has been known and made aware that one or two workers is not enough to clean buildings or dorms. The night shift (graveyard) has less than 10 workers cleaning the entire campus which is not sufficient. With the continual understaffing of workers and the growth of UC Merced, with the 2020 project, it has resorted to the exploitation of these workers with inadequate support and pay. This campus is growing every year and expected to double in size to ten thousand students by 2020 while not engaging in efforts to hire more service workers. Understaffing has continued for years and there has been no remedy to this ongoing issue. There has not been any efforts by supervisors, hiring agents, chancellors, or even the president of the UC system to address these concerns and remedies to alleviate these issues.

    1. Students demand that the UC hires more service workers to reduce the stress enforced on the current service workers.

    2. Students demand that the University hire more service workers after every expansion, therefore as the number of the students increase the number of service workers hired will also increase.

UC Riverside

  1. All temporary (temp) workers in Facilities Services and Custodial Grounds Department shall be converted to full time employment.

  2. For all new buildings and developments on campus - including but not limited to, the buildings on Aberdeen Drive, the renovations to The Barn, and new dining halls that are under development - there shall be no outsourcing and all employment positions should be filled by career UC workers.

UC Santa Cruz

  1. Hire only unionized workers for Student Housing West and all other future P3s;

  2. Stop under-staffing workers;

  3. Endorse and implement action demands presented on Friday, November 16th, 2018 by students addressing the chancellor search.


SIGNATORY ORGANIZATIONS:

  • ASUC Office of the President at UCB

  • ASUC Office of the External Affairs Vice President (EAVP) at UCB

  • Bears for Palestine at UCB

  • Black Student Union (BSU) at UCB

  • CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights and A Valid Education) at UCB

  • Muslim Student Association (MSA) at UCB

  • Rising Immigrant Scholars through Education (RISE) at UCB

  • Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UCB

  • United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) at UCD

  • Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UCD

  • S.P.E.A.K for Undocumented & Immigrant Rights at UCD

  • Muslim Student Association (MSA) at UCD

  • ASUCD Ethnic & Cultural Affairs Commission at UCD

  • Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) at UCD

  • Pan Afro Student Organization (PASO) at UCD

  • IGNITE at UCD

  • Peruvian Student Association at UCD

  • Davis College Democrats

  • United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) at UCI

  • ASUCI Office of the External Vice President Labor Organizing Commission

  • Central Americans For Empowerment (CAFE) at UCI

  • Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlan (MEChA) de UCI

  • Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UCI

  • Black Psychology Student Association (BPSA) at UCI

  • Students Advocating for Immigrant Rights and Equity (SAFIRE) at UCI

  • South Asian Student Union (SASU) at UCI

  • Kababayan (Kaba) at UCI

  • Black Crypto Scholarz at UCI

  • Office of the External Vice President ASUCI

  • Student Labor Advocacy Project at UCLA

  • Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UCLA

  • Muslim Student Association (MSA) at UCLA

  • Improving Dreams, Equality, and Access (IDEAS) at UCLA

  • Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) at UCLA

  • Afrikan Student Union (ASU) at UCLA

  • Eagle and the Condor Liberation Front (ECLF) at UCLA

  • Indus at UCLA

  • UC Student-Workers Union (UAW 2865), UCLA Unit

  • Labor Commissioner of the External Office of ASUCM

  • External Office of ASUCM

  • ASUCR Highlander Action Coalition

  • Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) de UCR

  • Teatro Quinto Sol de UCR

  • LaFamilia de UCR

  • Providing Opportunity, Dreams, and Education in Riverside (PODER) at UCR

  • Underground Scholars Initiative at UCR

  • Mujeres Unidas de UCR

  • Hermanos Unidos de UCR

  • United Student Labor Action Coalition (USLAC) UCSB

  • Associated Students UCSB

  • Improving Dreams, Equality, Access, and Success (IDEAS) UCSB

  • Mujeres Unidas por Justicia, Educacion, y Revolucion (MUJER) de UCSB

  • Mesa Directiva de UCSB

  • Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) UCSB

  • Campus Marxist Humanists at UCSB

  • Congreso de UCSB

  • Student Activist Network (SAN) at UCSB

  • Raices de Mi Tierra UCSB

  • unaffiliated students at UCSC

  • United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) at UCSD

  • Black Student Union (BSU) at UCSD

  • Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán (MEChA) de UCSD

  • Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UCSD

  • Students Against Mass Incarceration (SAMI) at UCSD

  • Queer and Trans* People of Color (QTPOC) at UCSD

  • Kaibigang Pilipin@ (KP) at UCSD

  • Asian & Pacific Islander Student Alliance (APSA) at UCSD

  • Student Sustainability Collective (SSC) at UCSD

  • Groundworks Books at UCSD

  • Che Café at UCSD

  • UCSD Food Co-op

  • General Store Co-op at UCSD

  • UC Undocumented Student Coalition

To: Janet Napolitano, President of the UC; Peter Chester, Executive Director of the Systemwide Labor Relations Office; all Chancellors of the UC system
From: [Your Name]

President Napolitano, Labor Relations Executive Director Chester, and Chancellors of the UC system:

I am reaching out to voice my solidarity with the workers of AFSCME 3299, UPTE-CWA 9119, and UC-AFT as they go through contract negotiations with the University of California. These workers are the people who make our campuses function on a day-to-day basis, and it is unacceptable that the UC has denied them the respect, dignity, and fair contracts that they deserve.

I join the UC-Wide Student Coalition for Campus Labor Justice in demanding that the University of California:

1. Provide livable wages and stable benefits to all UC workers, and end racial and gendered pay inequities;
2. End its subcontracting practices, and address understaffing issues by hiring in full-time career workers;
3. Terminate all direct and secondary ties with federal immigration agencies;
4. Divest from companies that violate Palestinian human rights;
5. End the deployment of police to on-campus actions;
6. Guarantee academic freedom to academic librarians; and
7. Satisfy the bargaining demands of all UC labor unions.

Your campus community calls upon you to respect the dignity of campus labor.