Socialist Action /June 2000
Youth in Action
Workers in struggle at UCLA
By MICHAEL SCHWARTZ
LOS ANGELES-The class struggle is alive and well
at UCLA. This is something that people in the LA area aren't used to. Most
think UCLA is an institution of learning-a school that cares about the students
as well as the professors, TAs, and the many others who work here.
Unfortunately, that's not the case. All UCLA cares
about is profit and the corporations who make up almost 75 percent of its
revenue.
The administration doesn't care about the students
or the people they employ. If you donate $150 million to the university
they'll name a medical building after you. Remember Ronald Reagan, a man
who as governor made slashing health care and cutting the UC's budget two
cornerstones of his legacy? He got a building.
At the same time, the university has rewarded with
a pink slip people who dedicated 20 years of their life working for the
medical center-and then refused to even meet with them.
In the past few weeks hundreds of people have been
protesting UCLA's labor policies. These labor policies include unfair and
unlawful labor practices with the TAs, the attempted elimination of almost
100 jobs, and the continued use of contracted labor.
The main fight, which must be won, is against the
university's use of contracted labor. This is a battle that has been going
on for a few years, but it has only been getting attention recently.
When you think about the problem of sub-contracting,
usually it's corporations that come to mind. In fact, this was the main
problem the janitors faced in their campaign for justice. Sub-contracting
is something corporations can only get away with when workers aren't effectively
organized.
But this problem doesn't only affect private corporations.
It's also the main problem facing the 150,000 employees of the UC system.
This system, with UCLA leading the pack, has followed corporate America's
lead in the quest for cheaper labor and higher profits.
Workers who receive higher wages are fired and
then replaced by employees who can receive as little as the minimum wage
with no benefits. The result is lower wages, few benefits, and full-time
employees who have no job security.
UCLA understands that people don't like the idea
of contracted labor. So they've come up with a new term, "casual employment."
This is to present the illusion that there are workers who temporarily work
for UCLA at lower wages, but that this isn't a permanent policy. Basically,
they're lying to us. There are "casual workers" at UCLA who have
been employed here over 10 years.
According to UCLA's "personnel policies for
staff members," if a person works here for over a year, they have to
be considered full-time. UCLA has found a way around that legal dilemma.
What they do is hire someone for 364 days, fire them, and one day later
"rehire" that same person.
Though all workers are exploited under capitalism,
you could say these workers are super-exploited. Since these people are
technically called "casual employees" they do not receive a pension,
social security coverage, raises, or a full health plan. Since they are
"casual," they can be fired without cause and without any notification.
Seventy-four percent of laboratory assistants and
64 percent of researchers are "casual employees." Recently, almost
100 workers at the UCLA laundry facility and medical records department
learned they were going to be replaced by contracted workers. As one worker
said, "I've given 20 years to UCLA and now they want me to be homeless."
These labor struggles produced two mass protests
involving hundreds of people, which were part of a united-front coalition
involving workers and students.
Students and workers at UCLA have joined forces
to let the administration know they will not get away with firing almost
100 workers just for a few extra dollars of profit. We also are demanding
that our public university not follow the disgusting lead of corporate America
and that they put an end to contracted labor, no matter how deceitfully
they define it.
The Youth for Socialist Action chapter at UCLA
has formed a student/labor committee, which will be fighting for this struggle
and for all labor struggles in the LA area.
 YSA and SA members marched in May 13 mobilization for
Mumia
UC Berkeley student tells off Albright
BERKELEY, Calif.-On May 10, after Secretary of
State Madeline Albright wrapped up her keynote speech to 5000 graduates,
faculty, and guests at the University of California, Fadia Issam Rafeedie,
the student commencement speaker, took the mike, and then tossed aside her
reportedly "polite" prepared remarks.
Ms. Rafeedie went on to blister Albright for her
defense of American imperialism. She conceded nothing to Albright, who,
reported the Contra Costa Times on May 11, "briefly praised U.S. work
in Kosovo and the Middle East, bringing a scattering of boos from the crowd."
Albright didn't hang around to hear Fadia Rafeedie's
passionate condemnation of the U.S.-led trade embargo imposed on Iraq following
the Gulf War and the embargo's tragic consequences for the Iraqi civilian
population-especially children.
Instead, "Albright was hustled out by the
Secret Service," reported the Oakland Tribune (May 11), "before
the main course: a rousing, militant speech criticizing Albright and the
United States policy in Iraq by University Medallist Fadia Rafeedie, the
top scholar in the graduating class of 6500 seniors."
The press reported that "59 protesters, most
concerned with the U.S. trade embargo on Iraq, were evicted by police and
the Secret Service before and during Albright's speech." Several hundred
inside and outside the campus site condemned U.S. policies toward Iraq,
and some graduating students wore orange armbands, symbols of their support
for the protesters.
Here are some of Fadia Rafeedie's remarks: "Actually,
I share the feelings of a lot of my comrades who were arrested today. I
am very fortunate that I am able to give them voice. There are about 5000
people here today. About that many Iraqis will die before we graduate. Commencement
means beginnings. Where civilization itself began, it's now being destroyed.
"I was looking at my grandmother, who came
here from Palestine and was very unhappy about the protesters. A lot of
you feel the same way. But I don't believe they embarrassed the university.
I think they dignified it.
"Sometimes not saying things, not mentioning
things, is like lying about them. I'm going to mention what she [Albright]
didn't mention at all-Iraq and U.S. policy. The cancer rate in Iraq has
risen over 70 percent since the Gulf War. The children dying of malicious
diseases weren't even born when the Gulf War happened. ... You gave a standing
ovation to a woman who stands for everything I'm against. This woman is
doing horrible things."
The next day, Ms. Rafeedie wrote to the Daily Californian,
a campus paper, responding to critics who charged that her impromptu remarks
were "completely inappropriate."
"I couldn't imagine addressing my class in
the Spring of the new millennium," she wrote, "without mentioning
what I consider to be the greatest human tragedy of our time, where 2.5
million people have been bombed or starved to death, or who have died of
perfectly preventable illnesses because of a U.S. policy intended not to
promote democracy or to contain a dictator, but to recolonize the Arab World....
"Watching the protesters get expelled one
by one, for speaking out about injustices to which I am willing to commit
my life, not only encouraged me to give that speech, but dictated that I
do. ... The overwhelming support I've been receiving from classmates, professors,
[and] perfect strangers ... are confirming what I already knew: that following
my heart up there was the right thing to do."
-CHARLES WALKER
Socialist Action /June 2000 |