After a year and a half of bargaining, service workers at the University of California have voted overwhelmingly to approve a contract agreement which was tentatively reached on January 28.

The 8,500 workers, members of AFSCME Local 3299, include custodians, gardeners, food service workers and drivers. The contract includes significant wage increases, a pay system that rewards seniority, and a first-time ever statewide minimum wage for their job classifications.

Lakesha Harrison, President of Local 3299, says the agreement goes a long way toward ending poverty wages at UC:

“After a year and half of negotiations, this is truly a historic day. We have gone on strike, held informational pickets, lobbied, ran television commercials and many other things that were key to get UC executives to do the right thing and readjust their priorities from executives to the lowest paid workers at UC.”

Read Local 3299’s press release, and visit their website for more details on the agreement.

More than 8,500 service employees of the University of California, represented by Local 3299, launched a five-day strike to focus public attention on their battle for a fair contract and an end to poverty wages.

The workers have been negotiating in good faith with UC executives for almost a year, but talks have remained deadlocked for months. On July 11, after the union announced its intention to strike this week, the Superior Court of San Francisco issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the strike. But leaders of Local 3299 say the judge’s order does not prevent union members from striking since the court stated only that Local 3299 could not strike until it provided the University of California with “adequate notice” of the exact dates of the strike, which the union did on July 10.

“It’s our right to strike,” LaKesha Harrison, a licensed vocational nurse and president of Local 3299, told UCLA’s the Daily Bruin. “It’s illegal for them to prevent people from exercising their constitutional right. We have to protect the workers.”

The employees, who have been working without a contract since January, are paid wages which are dramatically lower than other hospitals and California’s community colleges, where wages are 25 percent higher, on average, according to a report: “Failing California’s Communities.” Service workers, for example, are paid as little as $10 an hour.

“I am striking for my family,” says Rosario Cortes, a senior custodian at UC/Santa Cruz. “It’s a shame that I work at a world-renowned university but they aren’t paying me enough to support my family. UC has a responsibility to our communities to provide good jobs, starting by agreeing to a minimum wage that would lift many of us out of poverty.”

Many UC employees are forced to work two or more jobs, or rely on public assistance, to meet their families’ basic needs, according to Local 3299, which also represents some 11,000 patient care workers at UC’s five medical centers, who are not formally participating in this week’s strike action although they, too, are currently fighting for a new contract. Some, however, have walked out in solidarity with their striking sisters and brothers, despite disciplinary threats.

To read more about Local 3299’s campaign, click here (PDF). Also, visit Local 3299’s campaign website at TakeBackUC.org, and check out these stories in the San Francisco Chronicle, The San Diego Union-Tribune, and this video from KCRA-3 TV in Sacramento.

Reposted from the AFL-CIO Now Blog.

Employees at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) are seeking a voice on the job through a historic coordinated effort by two unions – AFSCME and UAW.

Kelly Hinton, an eight-year financial support specialist, says:

This is great news for all UNH employees. We feel that the two unions working together will be a good fit for the University alongside of the faculty union. Working together with AFSCME and the UAW means we are united and stronger.

Says Lonn Sattler, a veterans coordinator who has worked at UNH for 26 years:

This is a terrific opportunity for us to have a real, effective voice on the job. With two great unions working together, we can make UNH a better place to work.

Last year, the state Legislature passed legislation allowing state employees, including those at UNH, to form unions and bargain with their employers when a majority of workers sign union authorization cards.

AFSCME and UAW agreed to coordinate organizing efforts and support the negotiating teams of all UNH workers who are successful in forming their own local unions and bargaining units. Under the agreement, clerical, technical, skilled trades and administrative employees and certain supervisory employees will be eligible to join AFSCME. Service and professional staff, adjunct faculty members and some supervisors will be eligible to become part of the UAW.

Both unions say the partnership will help the workers. Says Bob Madore, director of UAW Region 9A:

Our goal is to help workers who want to form their own unions. By combining resources so we can work with AFSCME, we can be even more effective.

Alva Arellano, AFSCME’s director of organizing in New England, adds:

This is the right approach for UNH workers and for our two unions. We’re going to help UNH workers join together so they can have a voice in the decisions that affect their lives and improve the important public services they provide.

AFSCME University of California employees (AFSCME Local 3299) are taking back their university. To that end, they’ve launched a special website: www.takebackuc.org.

The new site educates the general public about the important links between workers’ contract demands, patient care and student services at the University.

In short, UC Students are paying more for fewer services, and workers are struggling to make ends meet due to sub-standard wages. Meanwhile, the UC administration has put executive compensation above all else.

Local 3299’s campaign for justice has the support of hundreds of political, clergy, faculty and community leaders. You can show your support by checking out www.takebackuc.org.

Labor Day has barely ended and we are already witnessing new examples of employer abuse. This time it’s the University of Minnesota, which refuses to give its nearly 3,500 clerical, technical and health care workers a decent wage increase.

Represented by AFSCME locals 3937, 3800, 3801 and 3260 (Minnesota Council 5), these hardworking members are now on strike. Picket signs went up across the university early Wednesday morning after frontline staff workers overwhelmingly rejected the administration’s meager salary raise offer.

Over the past five years, workers at the U. of Minnesota have seen inflation steadily outpace their wage increases. Meanwhile, administrative salaries have grown an average of 27 percent. Faculty wages have likewise grown by 19 percent. Learn more by watching this video.

Take a stand and support the workers – call the strike hotline at 612-234-8772 or visit the Local 3937 site for more ways to help.