Do you know any U.C. students? Thing could get a bit woolly for them next week as “8,500 University of California employees may hit the picket lines beginning Monday to protest a deadlock over wage increases,” according to the Sacramento Bee.
The Bee is also reporting that “The strike involves workers represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, who perform housekeeping, cafeteria and security services on UC campuses. The strike is planned to run though Friday at UC’s 10 campuses and five medical centers, including UC Davis facilities in Sacramento and Davis.”
The union wants to increase their lowest wages from $10 an hour to $15 an hour. U.C. officials have offered an increase to $11.50 and $12 an hour. That amounts to about a twenty percent increase, which seems rather fair to me. They argue otherwise. The video clip above explains the union’s position.
In a time of recession, when our state is drowning in debt, does it makes sense for these union workers to ask for such a huge pay increase, or to go on strike? Couldn’t their work be subbed out to private contractors for even less?
Why should U.C. students and the State of California have to pay more just so these workers can increase their pay by fifty percent? When was the last time any of you got a fifty percent pay increase? Is it just me or is this strike just plain nuts?
If these people want to make more money shouldn’t they go back to school and get educated? Or learn a trade? You can make far more money as a painter than you can as a janitor.
I did notice on the union’s website that they offer scholarships to their workers and their families. Good! That’s what these folks need to do – get their high school equivalency certificates, and enroll at a junior college. They will never make great money in their current occupations, nor should they expect to.
I wonder how much money the union organizers make? They will likely keep drawing their huge incomes next week while the workers go without while embroiled in an unnecessary strike.
Even the high-brow education system uses slave labor.
Cook,
Astute observation. I have often compared our system to that of Rome. The ancient Romans built their economy on slave labor – and paid the price for it. Eventually they no longer had a cohesive society and were easy pickings for the barbarians at the gate.
But whose job is it to free today’s slaves? At some point in their lives they need to decide to do something on their own. Should we help them do so? Of course, but asking us to pay for a fifty percent pay increase at a time when so many Americans are hurting and at a time when our state and our country are billions of dollars in debt makes no sense.
I did this kind of work growing up. My dad owned a janitorial company. It was damned hard work! You bet that my parents pushed me to get as much education as I could. The last thing my father wanted was for me to get stuck doing that kind of work as an adult. My parents did not go to college. But I did and you bet that my kids will too.
Art, are you still carry that neo-con ethos, common to so many Republicans (not all, by any means), that people should get paid what they deserve, no more no less: “The poor should stay poor because they failed to get a good education”? False economics. “Deserve” is irrelevant to setting salary levels other than as a bargaining tactic. Salary is simply the minimum you need to pay to keep the guy you need. I know how things work at the UC;I spent 8 years at UCI as a grad student, later a post-doc research associate. The total “compensation” of UC faculty ranges from $200,000 to $1,500,000. ( Check this site: [http://www.sfgate.com/news/special/pages/2005/ucsalary/].
What the UC pays professors is purely economic. Faculty at research universities actually pay their own way by bringing in grant money. On any research proposal to a government agency, there is a standard budget item called “indirect costs”, typically 100% added to the actual costs of the research. When a professor brings in a 5 million dollar research grant, the UC takes half of that right off the top as “indirect costs” to pay for the facilities, maintenance, secretarial support, etc. “Publish or perish” is a myth at the UC; the reality is “bring in the grants or perish”. Research universities pay big to compete for the “big boys” who bring in the big grant money. (Incidentally, I, a high school teacher, get paid more than most faculty at non-research colleges.)
What about the UC’s maintenance people, how do their wages get set? First a little simple math to compare hourly and salaried workers: 40 hrs/wk times 50 wks/yr gives 2000 hrs paid labor a year… so take the hourly wage, double it and add 3 zeros. So $10/ hour equals $20,000/yr. The federal poverty line (family of 4) is $21,000, a grossly low level for O.C. , where an average small apartment will eat up ¾ of that.
Whether professor or janitor, one can simply withhold his labor if the pay is too low. UC operations would immediately grind to a halt if either group were to do so. However, upper income people have the resources to pack up and move elsewhere for better employment. For the poor, it’s either work where you live, or lose your home and go hungry. They possess only one legal tactic to keep from being oppressed, which is to organize and withhold their labor as a group. Unscrupulous businesses and institutions (the UC?) have long tried to deprive low wage workers of their one bargaining tactic by intimidation, hiring of thugs, campaign contributions to legislators (hiring thugs?) for writing laws that cripple labor unions, and recently, by employing a wink-and-a-nudge welcome to illegal immigrant laborers, while maintaining on the books immigration laws to threaten them should they try to organize or seek legal recourse against abuse.
You watch Art, I’ll bet the UC decides its time to take a real close look at the immigration documents of their striking workers — no connection to the strike, of course.
UNIONS SUCK!
EMPLOYERS SUCK MORE
Why UCI pays big bucks to the “big boys” in academia:
O.C.Register, July 15, 2008
UCI smashes fundraising record with $130 million haul
UC Irvine has shattered its previous record for private donations, raising $130 million during the past year, a sum that includes large, previously unannounced gifts for stem cell research and studying how children use digital media.
The donations are $10 million higher than the university’s previous record and will help UCI kick off its first $1 billion fundraising campaign, set to begin on Oct. 4.
“Our faculty is highly regarded across the country for its breakthrough thinking on many initiatives that are important to the community, and the donations reflect that,” said Thomas Mitchell, vice chancellor of university advancement.
I hate when people start bashing republicans when it comes to unions. Unions in public sector don’t make since. Well if private sector can afford it then I don’t have any problem. I don’t want my tax dollar to pay for these worker’s pensions. I work hard and I don’t have pension. So I rather pay less tax and save for my retirement. I pay $25 co-pay and if any union member is asked to pay $10.00 then they go on strike. Social security retirement age is going up, I can retire when I turn 65. But unions have negotiated the retirement age down to 55 and they get 70% of their salaries as pensions. This is outrageous.
Unions stop bashing Republicans, they just want people to get fair share, not inflated based on a threat of strike.
About people who are making over 150,000, they probably deserve it because when you were clubbing, dancing, boozing and god know what… there were some people who were studying and working hard. Don’t complain if you don’t make enough. Too bad you were having fun while some where studying/working part time. Simply those people who were studying are making more money. Agreed that their are abuses at the high end of the income bracket but most of the people worked hard for their money. And their are some ghetto people at the lower end of the bracket that abuse the system too.