University of California Local 3299 Members Protest for Fair Wages

April 14, 2008

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE – University of California employees – members of Local 3299 – demonstrate April 3 in San Francisco to demand a fair contract, which they have lacked since early last year. A similar protest was also held in Los Angeles that day. This was part of an ongoing campaign that included demonstrations at all UC campuses and medical centers in January.

Photo Credit: Thor Swift

Thousands of University of California employees, and their supporters, chose the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech to mark their ongoing struggle for better wages and benefits.

The employees demonstrated – and some were arrested for civil disobedience – at campuses in San Francisco and Los Angeles on April 3 to highlight the fact that 11,000 patient care workers and more than 9,000 UC service employees have been working without a contract since early last year.

Dr. King gave his famous “Mountaintop” speech in Memphis, Tenn., where he had gone to support striking sanitation workers who were seeking recognition of their union, AFSCME Local 1733. Dr. King was assassinated the next day. Four decades later, says UC Local 3299 Pres. LaKesha Harrison, “we are facing another fight for justice for a group of public servants.”

Harrison says that UC employees are paid between 25 and 30 percent less than non-university workers who perform similar duties in the same areas, based on a study, “Failing California’s Communities.” The local wants wages increased to levels comparable to those paid for similar work at Kaiser Permanente, Catholic Healthcare West and various community colleges.

The April demonstration followed another, in January, at all 10 campuses and five medical centers across the state.

Read more about the Los Angeles demonstrations in UCLA’s Daily Bruin and Westside Today. Also, listen to this radio broadcast from KCBS reporter Margie Shafer on the protest outside the UC San Francisco Medical Center. To learn more about Local 3299’s contract struggle, visit their campaign website at TakeBackUC.org.