University of California support staff in one-day strike
By
Evelyn Rios
10 January 2017
Some 12,000 administrative, support and clerical workers throughout the University of California system are set to take part in a one-day strike today. The strike affects all 10 University of California campuses, located in major cities throughout the state, as well as five medical centers.
Teamsters Local 2010 said it called the one-day “sympathy” strike to support the nearly 600 skilled trade workers (electricians, mechanics, plumbers, locksmiths), who are currently on a one-week strike at UC Los Angeles that began Friday January 6 and has been scheduled to end Wednesday. Their contract expired in 2013. Skilled trades workers at UC San Diego saw their contract expire in 2015.
The Teamsters said the strike was in response to “unfair labor practices (ULP’s),” violations of state laws, and UC’s refusal to “bargain in good faith.” While from the standpoint of the Teamster executives the strike represents an attempt to diffuse worker anger over declining living standards, it nonetheless expresses the determination of workers to fight back after years of concession contracts. The Teamsters local 2010 contract expired November 30, 2016.
In a self indictment of its own policies the union notes that real wages have decreased by 24 percent over the past 18 years “while executive pay skyrockets, tuition increases, and the University grows ever wealthier.”
A study released in October of last year by Occidental College’s Urban & Environmental Policy Institute in conjunction with Teamsters Local 2010 concluded that over two-thirds or “70% of UC’s clerical, administrative, and clerical workers struggle to put adequate food on the table,” a category the U.S. Department…