California: University service workers struggle against poverty wages

Among the unions demands is an increase in the minimum wage paid to members from $10 to $15 an hour at the end of the proposed contract term, along with the introduction of double time pay for members who work shifts of 12 hours or more.

The $10 an hour wage, which not all, but a large portion of the membership currently receives, falls well below the US Department of Health and Human Services 2008 poverty threshold for a family of four.

A $15 per hour wage would slightly exceed the threshold for a family of four but would still leave the service workers heavily reliant upon external support, including food stamps and state-provided medical care.

University officials are proceeding with ruthlessness. UC spokeswoman Nicole Savickas has cited the unions refusal thus far to drop the modest wage increase demand as evidence that it has refused to come to the bargaining table and a lot of the proposals AFSCME has made have been unchanged from the beginning, meaning that either the $5 increase is too much, or perhaps no increase should be given at all.