"CLAREMONT, California - The student movement made an unexpected move in solidarity with university employees in a large-scale action at Pomona College, a private institution and part of the Claremont consortium of colleges at the eastern edge of Los Angeles County. Well over a hundred students joined with numerous employees of the three campus dining commons, other Pomona employees, and a few faculty members to deliver a petition to Pomona President Oxtoby."
The mobilization began in the morning, when students from Pitzer College assembled on their campus, while Pomona students gathered on theirs. At about ten, the two contingents converged, singing the union hymn "No nos moverán."
Students, arm-in-arm with workers, entered the president's office two-by-two to deliver the signed petition demanding a neutral card check process to form a union. This is the process that would be permitted in all workplaces if the much-hyped but now-stalled Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would have become law.
The petition read, in part, "An NLRB-administered election, which permits management to campaign against the Union on work-time and create a climate of fear in the workplace, is not free and fair." It went on to demand employer neutrality in the workers' decision to organize, and recognition of a majority-backed union.
Previous efforts to organize food service workers on the campus have been thwarted by intimidation, collaboration between the administration and upper-level bureaucrats from established unions and bribery-based decertification drives by management.
This time, however, the workers are seeking an independent union to collectively bargain in their interest. Over 90 percent of the food service workers signed the petition.
Forming an independent union is the first step toward justice for the workers, who complain of poor salaries, few opportunities for advancement, abuses such as disallowance of breaks and working off the clock, and underemployment.
"The salaries that we have are miserable," reports Maria R. Garcia, a Pomona food service worker. "I've been working here for ten years already. I started at $8.40, and now it's $10.65 [per hour]. Two years without a raise. The first year, they said I didn't qualify because I was pregnant, and I had an injury. Another thing, we work for seven-and-a-half months of the year. So how do you support a family?" She made it clear that it wasn't an issue of disliking the job. "We like working here; we love working here. But with these conditions, it's hard. They just make it worse every year."
The mobilization began in the morning, when students from Pitzer College assembled on their campus, while Pomona students gathered on theirs. At about ten, the two contingents converged, singing the union hymn "No nos moverán."
Students, arm-in-arm with workers, entered the president's office two-by-two to deliver the signed petition demanding a neutral card check process to form a union. This is the process that would be permitted in all workplaces if the much-hyped but now-stalled Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would have become law.
The petition read, in part, "An NLRB-administered election, which permits management to campaign against the Union on work-time and create a climate of fear in the workplace, is not free and fair." It went on to demand employer neutrality in the workers' decision to organize, and recognition of a majority-backed union.
Previous efforts to organize food service workers on the campus have been thwarted by intimidation, collaboration between the administration and upper-level bureaucrats from established unions and bribery-based decertification drives by management.
This time, however, the workers are seeking an independent union to collectively bargain in their interest. Over 90 percent of the food service workers signed the petition.
Forming an independent union is the first step toward justice for the workers, who complain of poor salaries, few opportunities for advancement, abuses such as disallowance of breaks and working off the clock, and underemployment.
"The salaries that we have are miserable," reports Maria R. Garcia, a Pomona food service worker. "I've been working here for ten years already. I started at $8.40, and now it's $10.65 [per hour]. Two years without a raise. The first year, they said I didn't qualify because I was pregnant, and I had an injury. Another thing, we work for seven-and-a-half months of the year. So how do you support a family?" She made it clear that it wasn't an issue of disliking the job. "We like working here; we love working here. But with these conditions, it's hard. They just make it worse every year."
