Comments on: State of the Union http://www.cityonahillpress.com/2012/05/10/state-of-the-union/ A Student-Run Newspaper Mon, 20 May 2013 00:35:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: James http://www.cityonahillpress.com/2012/05/10/state-of-the-union/comment-page-1/#comment-923 James Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:52:00 +0000 http://www.cityonahillpress.com/?p=24089#comment-923 I am tired of people complaining that people are building while there continues to be cuts. Guess what people? it doesn’t come from the same pot of money. Paying the gardener comes from a different account that building the new science lab. you can’t simply move money like that.

]]> By: Nora Hochman http://www.cityonahillpress.com/2012/05/10/state-of-the-union/comment-page-1/#comment-827 Nora Hochman Fri, 18 May 2012 17:55:00 +0000 http://www.cityonahillpress.com/?p=24089#comment-827 It’s always good to see an article about workers and working at UC and UCSC.  This article, however, got a few things really wrong and leaves out some important information.  For example, AFSCME has far more than 47 members on the UCSC campus.  Maybe there are 47 members of their Skilled Crafts unit, but add to that the 300 other AFSCME workers in Dining Services, Custodial and Transportation.  AFSCME workers make and serve food, clean buildings and drive the loop and disability services vehicles.  In addition to AFSCME, there is another large union serving students statewide:  The Teamsters Union (formerly known as CUE – the Coalition of University Employees) Local 2010, has 11, 000 workers systemwide and just over 400 on the UCSC campus.  Those workers are administrative, childcare, dispatchers, library assistants and all manners of student advisors, program coordinators.  In December 2011, we settled our contract negotiations with items that included some very modest raises and the pain of increased pension and health insurance contributions now being paid for by the workers.

While it may be true as Mike Rotkin said that UCSC is not an anti-union campus per se, it is also true that UC definitely is and UCSC operates in that arena.  Endless layoffs of Teamsters, persistent and deliberate vacancies that cause excessive workloads and severe stress from the workloads are features of this “not an anti-union campus” workplace.

It’s too bad the article’s author didn’t bother to research some more facts of unionized work at UCSC and it’s really a shame that no Teamster workers were interviewed for this story.  Had they been, readers would have learned about the critical work being provided by administrative and allied trades staff who work at UCSC.  Students looking for housing, financial aid, student employment, research and internship opportunities, conferences, admissions and course offerings will find help from a Teamster Local 2010 member.

It takes a lot of workers to serve students.  Perhaps a future article could explore the extent of that work, those workers and the great work being done to provide the quality education UCSC still manages to deliver, against overwhelming odds.

Nora Hochman, Organizer/Representative
Teamsters Local 2010, Santa Cruz Campus

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