"
>Message: 7
>Date: Thu, 11 May 2006 20:15:13 -0700
>From: "Jordan Hayes" <jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com>
>Subject: [lbo-talk] Meanwhile, in Berkeley ...
>To: "LBO" <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
>Message-ID: <02b601c67572$492682e0$4448a8c0 at pavepaws>
>Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> reply-type=original
>
>UC Berkeley graduation speaker walks out to honor picket line
>-
>Thursday, May 11, 2006
>
>(05-11) 13:06 PDT Berkeley, Calif. (AP) --
>State Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez refused to cross a picket line to
>speak at the University of California, Berkeley, commencement, leaving
>the school's chancellor to deliver the keynote address.
>
>Nunez, D-Los Angeles, was scheduled to speak Wednesday before thousands
>of Berkeley graduates at the university's Hearst Greek Theatre but chose
>to leave campus rather than speak while up to 20 union janitors
>demonstrated for higher wages.
>
>"The speaker doesn't cross picket lines," Nunez spokesman Richard
>Stapler said.
>
>UC Chancellor Robert Birgeneau stepped in as a substitute speaker.
>
>The protest by members of the American Federation of State, County and
>Municipal Employees was the first such disruption at a Berkeley
>convocation in recent memory, said university spokeswoman Marie Felde.
These might be three years old figures from 2002-2003, and undergraduate CSU/UC tuition has gone up perhaps 70%, (and they say this was a period of low inflation!), but there are other employee groups at same earning status who much of the university's work hours. Also, compare this to the local costs within a 10 miles radius (click 'recently sold' option and try to find regions of Oakland with houses under 1/2million$. It's fun to look at Salinas or Los Angeles too): http://www.homepages.com
Here are tutor/teaching assistant rates (not as bad as some other states, but not much more than rent cost): http://hrweb.berkeley.edu/pay/uawwg.htm
"The union, which represents service workers at UC Berkeley, had been given a wage increase last month that raised their starting hourly wages to $11.34. But the union continues to demand a starting wage of $15.34."
http://www.cft.org/councils/uc/archives/background.html "Why are UCB lecturers going on strike? To protest the University administration's unfair labor practices. The University administration is claiming the strike is "illegal" because the UC-AFT hasn't declared impasse at the bargaining table. Nothing could be further from the truth. This is an unfair labor practice strike, concerted action around which is legally protected activity. Low Pay Relative to Qualifications Lecturers have no guaranteed salary schedule. They can be paid anything above the minimum hiring rate, and are not guaranteed any automatic advancement regardless of years of service. All adjustments, other than cost-of-living raises mandated by the Legislature, are at the sole discretion of the administration. The average UC Berkeley lecturer earns $23,297. Half of UC-Berkeley lecturers earned $18,511 or less last year. Among those with six or more years of service, the average annual UC earnings last term was $32,165."
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