Union tries personal tactics on some UC regents
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Martha Garibay (left) and Hilda Sandoval (center), union members who work in food services at UCLA, protest at the home of UC Regent Eddie Island in Santa Monica on Friday.
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Dozens of custodians, gardeners, bus drivers and cooks from the University of California snooped around picturesque Fort Baker in Sausalito the other day, trying to figure out where investors from Blum Capital Partners were holding an annual meeting.
They spied the group entering a building. Rushing in, they squeezed past the stunned financiers and marched around a meeting room chanting, "Dick Blum, you can't hide! We can see your greedy side!"
Blum, the company's chairman and a UC regent, is one of several high-profile university leaders to encounter the dramatic, in-your-face tactics of UC's lowest-paid workers.
The individualized protests began last fall after the regents unveiled a cost-cutting strategy that did not spare workers earning less than $40,000 a year.
The tactic stands in contrast to the mass protests March 4 that poured from school and university campuses up and down the state as demonstrators sought to bring the plight of public education to as wide an audience as possible.
The UC workers believe their more personal strategy is succeeding. But UC officials say such "strong-arm tactics" backfire by alienating leaders who are doing their best during rough economic times.
The employees staged a candlelight vigil at the Beverly Hills home of Regent Joanne Kozberg. They brought morning coffee and pastries to the Los Angeles home of Regent Monica Lozano, head of the finance committee. They knocked on the door of Regent Charlene Zettel in San Diego. And they leafleted at a gala for the After-School All-Stars hosted by Regent Paul Wachter and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - then donated $1,000 to the charity.
"Our strategy is to approach key regents who have power and influence to change policy," said Rik Sandoval, a cook at UCSF.
Fight over cuts
Workers say that one year after UC signed a contract meant to lift as many as 9,000 service workers out of poverty, more than 3,000 of them remain in the same desperate
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