Jul 13, 2008 12:38 pm US/Pacific
UC Workers Ignore Judge, Will Go On Strike Monday
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
Despite a judge's order to stay at work, the union representing some 8,500 service workers at the University of California's statewide system of hospitals, dormitories and other facilities vows they will walk out on strike Monday morning.
Workers plan to throw up picket lines at 6 a.m. Monday at the brand-new UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, and hold a rally there at noon. Picket lines are also expected at UC medical centers and campuses in Irvine, San Diego, Riverside and other cities.
The five-day walkout might affect everything from the cleaning of common areas at UC campuses to hospital food and janitorial services, union leaders said. medical service provided by support staff would also have to handled by supervisors or other workers, the university system says.
A judge in San Francisco on Friday said the threatened walkout would irreparably harm UC patients, faculty and students, and banned the strike until the union gives adequate notice. But union leaders said serving formal notice of the strike last Thursday fulfilled that requirement.
Officials at the university system last week said patients at 15 UC medical centers and hospitals across the state will be endangered if the strike happens, and said the strike should be banned because the union has not bargained in good faith. "Our proposals are fair and responsive to many of the union's expressed concerns, and our employees deserve to have these negotiations resolved," said UC labor relations executive director Howard Pripas in a statement Friday.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees says its members are paid "poverty-level" wages of as low as $10 per hour. "It's unfortunate that after almost a year of negotiating, it has come to a strike," said UCSD employee Angela Vasquez in a statement today. "But with gas and food prices, our families are in crisis.
"We cannot wait another month for UC executives to end poverty wages -- my family could be homeless by then," she said.
The AFL-CIO affiliate and the UC system have been at impasse on financial matters since April.
About 2,225 UCLA workers are members of AFSCME, and the university has asked judges to prevent those potential strikers from asking non-union service workers from honoring the picket lines. They work as cooks, servers, gardeners and radiology, and radiology, respiratory and operating room technicians.
UC says it has offered a 26 percent pay raise over five years to patient care employees, and raises of about $1.75 to $2 per hour for service employees, depending on the cost of living at each location. The system is also offering enrollment in the same health care and pension systems offered to all UC employees.
But the union says UC wages are dramatically below those paid to community college workers in the state. It says 96 percent of its membership is eligible for food stamps, subsidized housing or other welfare-type assistance despite the workers' full-time employment.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
