Solidarity Notes Issue1

UC Solidarity Notes Student Worker Action Team Workers' Caucus Newsletter A newsletter by workers for workers

FURLOUGHS DO NOT PROTECT YOU OR YOUR COWORKERS FROM LAYOFFS The UC administration has not made any promises that staff will be protected from layoffs if and when they are furloughed, and in fact, even though the furlough program has already started, layoffs at UC Berkeley continue. These UCB staff are being laid off as part of reductions in departmental budgets and restructuring of units to cover part of the additional $67M cut to UCB’s budget; these cuts are in addition to the $187M system-wide ‘savings’ from furloughs.

research support.

Staff at UCB has been impacted by these campuses level cuts perhaps more than any other campus. By mid-July over 724 campus staff members system-wide had already been laid off. In early September, UCB issued another round of layoff notices and nearly 300 people have been laid off since.

AFT: 24 continuing lecturers; unknown number of non-reappointed pre-six (adjunct) lecturers

These layoffs include service workers, building and grounds maintenance, clerical, graduate student instructors, lecturers, technical and

Issue 1 November 2009

UPCOMING EVENTS Student-Faculty-Worker Townhall Thursday, November 12th 5:00-6:30 PM, 315 Wheeler

In addition to the hiring freeze, early retirement, attrition, reduction in work hours, nonreappointments and contracting, these layoffs are drastically reducing UCB’s workforce.

Hear your fellow workers talk about how the cuts have been affecting their units; meet other workers, students and faculty on campus; discuss what can be done and how we will fight back

Laid-0ff Workers at UCB since Jan 2009

Student-WorkerFaculty Strike November 18– November 20

AFSCME: 43

Statewide Day of Action Thursday, March 4th

CUE: 64 UPTE: 62 Building trades: 18; plus unknown number of forced retirees and others

OUR DEMANDS •

Non-represented: Over 100 in various departments •

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Our Strategy The current crisis has only exacerbated the inequalities that we face as workers on campus. If we hope to fight back and win, we must do so with a clear understanding of the situation against which we are fighting, what our rights are, and how we can best

mobilize our fellow rank-andfile workers. Our unions provide a basic structure within which we can begin to organize, but it is equally important to recognize that in order to create a mass democratic workers movement at UC Berkeley and across the state, we must actively

participate in our unions to fight for and promote our interests, and in so doing, become the union leadership. The first step in empowering the rank-and-file and encouraging more workers to be involved and invested in

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Stop layoffs, rehire all laid-off workers & stop hiring freezes; rescind furloughs and pay-cuts. Cease union busting practices; honor existing contracts and bargain as equals with unionized and non-unionized workers. Increase wages to reflect real cost of living increases; reduce salaries of UC administrators & rescind their bonuses. Improve workplace conditions; respect and just compensation for all labor: no divisions between mental and manual labor. Respect immigrant worker & students’ rights; we demand campus administration not allow racist police raids from UCPD, Berkeley PD, or ICE. Accountable, democratic university leadership elected from rank & file staff/faculty workers and students.

The SWAT Workers’ Caucus is comprised of UCB workers organizing to raise awareness about the effects of budget cuts to workers and services, and to collectively fight these cuts. It is an independent, democratic and non-hierarchical group that sets its own agenda according to its members’ interests and concerns, and strives to build a united front between workers and students in the struggle for student and worker economic and civil rights. The Workers’ Caucus meets Mondays from 12-1pm in 33 Dwinelle. http://www.ucsolidarity.org/content/swat-workers-caucus Please contact [email protected] for more information. http://www.ucsolidarity.org/content/swat-workers-caucus

September 24th Movement For workers on campus, the September 24th UPTE strike, rally and march involving massive numbers of students, faculty and staff, was the most important event in decades. For the first time, faculty and students in massive numbers heard about labor issues on campus, cheered for them, and spent the afternoon demonstrating in support of them. Unions have been preaching that tuition hikes and cutbacks in classes are simply different aspects of UC’s concern for its bottom line rather than the educational mission of the University. For the first time, faculty and students have seen that connection and have joined us in a coalition. There

have been meetings held and plans laid to continue to work to achieve our common goal: a university dedicated to preserving quality affordable public education for the people of California rather than privatizing it for the benefit of a corporate elite. It is vitally important that people who work at Cal, at all levels, in all unions,

participate in this movement. Isolated, labor issues rarely invoke the sympathy of the legislature and government in general, or the interest of the people of California. They are easily marginalized in the anti-union climate that pervades our public discourse. Linked to the struggles of students to fight tuition hikes and of lecturers and faculty to preserve the

Be there for events to support other parts of our community coalition. Students (supported by faculty and staff) sat in at the Anthropology Library and won the reopening of branch libraries on weekends. VICTORY IS POSSIBLE! We can fight layoffs and cutbacks by showing up and drawing attention to the terrible impact of University tactics. This can only happen if we all

quality of teaching at the university, they can capture the attention of the people and thereby the ear of legislators. What can we

take the responsibility of participating.

do to help reach the goals we have? Stay positive. The great social movements have always been won by people who believed in victory and never gave in to despair. Support your union. Join if you are not yet a member. Many unions are taking courageous stands opposing pressure to give in to slick schemes like the “furlough” idea. Sometimes standing up for what is right and just is more important than an advantage on paper.

Speak out! Each of us is a spokesperson for the UC to our friends, family and the public. Let them know what furloughs, layoffs and cutbacks are doing to campus operations and morale; let them know that the staff, students and faculty who are protesting these cuts are the heart of the University, NOT the administrators who claim to be working in the University’s best interest. If we can educate the public about what is really going on at UC, we can win some big changes in the long run and help take the University (and indeed the state) back for the diverse and fabulous community that is the people of California.

Strategy (continued) the mobilizing process is to create democratic spaces where we can honestly and openly voice our concerns, share information and analysis, and develop concrete proposals and plans of action.

isolated mobilization of individual units, but must include the simultaneous mobilization of and collaboration with other constituencies so each stands and acts in solidarity with others. The artificially-created and institutionalized

With a common understanding of what our rights and demands are and how we hope to achieve them, we have the power to create significant changes. Moreover, we must fight in solidarity with and alongside our fellow workers, unions, students, faculty, and community members. Democratic mobilization cannot end with the

divisions between students, workers and

faculty separating us in our day-to-day tasks will continue to divide labor movements and solidarity on campus as long as we allow it to continue. We are told and some believe our work is not connected to that of other unions and workers, that our job is not to work alongside or with students and faculty but for them as invisible laborers, that our jobs

are more expendable or alternatively more prestigious than the jobs of other campus workers -- yet we can and must resist such rhetoric. The reality of our jobs and experiences tells us that our fellow workers’ and students' fights and losses directly impact our own work, just as our fights and losses impact theirs. The refusal to see the university currently as a product of and tool for perpetuating labor and class inequality is dangerous. It is essential that we use the interconnected character of our struggle to create a space where we can successfully fight for worker, student, and faculty rights in solidarity with each other.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? Do you have comments or suggestions about how we can mobilize against the budget cuts, furloughs, and layoffs? Would you like to write an article for the next newsletter? We'd like to hear from you and truly make this a newsletter by workers for workers. Send all articles, comments, suggestions to: [email protected].