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News from the UC Berkeley strike
As of 3 PM the picket at Bancroft and Telegraph was still going strong with about two hundred participants.
As of 3 PM the picket at Bancroft and Telegraph was still going strong with about two hundred participants.
The noon rally included around 1000 people on Sproul Plaza, and began at around noon. There were speeches and chants until 12:45 at which point a large contingent departed for California Hall, the chancellors office. After fifteen minuntes there the flying picket departed to look for the chancellor, and we marched to the Crossroads dining common on Channing. Crossroads stayed open today because the UC hired replacement workers.
The flying picket had easily over 300 people, and there was a lot of diversity: many students, many workers, many members of the community were present. I was also impressed that there large numbers of people of every race.
We marched through the streets, blocking all the lanes, and as one student remarked to me "there are lots of cops but there are so many protestors that the cops can't do shit about it."
The next stop was the Berkeley Art Museum, where the chancellor was giving his speech. The group almost managed to rush in through the entrance on Durant, but the police managed to get in between the protestors and the museum. The picket split into three groups and blocked all three enterances to the museum for about twenty minutes.
If you read this in the next half an hour, get to the International House on Bancroft and Piedmont. The chancellor is giving another speech there and we want to let him know that we're not happy about him crossing the picket line.
The noon rally included around 1000 people on Sproul Plaza, and began at around noon. There were speeches and chants until 12:45 at which point a large contingent departed for California Hall, the chancellors office. After fifteen minuntes there the flying picket departed to look for the chancellor, and we marched to the Crossroads dining common on Channing. Crossroads stayed open today because the UC hired replacement workers.
The flying picket had easily over 300 people, and there was a lot of diversity: many students, many workers, many members of the community were present. I was also impressed that there large numbers of people of every race.
We marched through the streets, blocking all the lanes, and as one student remarked to me "there are lots of cops but there are so many protestors that the cops can't do shit about it."
The next stop was the Berkeley Art Museum, where the chancellor was giving his speech. The group almost managed to rush in through the entrance on Durant, but the police managed to get in between the protestors and the museum. The picket split into three groups and blocked all three enterances to the museum for about twenty minutes.
If you read this in the next half an hour, get to the International House on Bancroft and Piedmont. The chancellor is giving another speech there and we want to let him know that we're not happy about him crossing the picket line.
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He's being installed today. Leave him alone.
[give it a rest
by UCCU Thursday, Apr. 14, 2005 at 3:37 PM
He's being installed today. Leave him alone.]
maybe, if the administration hadn't been hardballing the union, then he could be installed within incident
impossible to have any sympathy for him in this situation, and besides, this is one of the reasons the Regents compensate people like him so generously, to deal with things like this
how much has the salary for his position gone up in the last 5 years? and how much has the salary for the members of the union increased?
--Richard
by UCCU Thursday, Apr. 14, 2005 at 3:37 PM
He's being installed today. Leave him alone.]
maybe, if the administration hadn't been hardballing the union, then he could be installed within incident
impossible to have any sympathy for him in this situation, and besides, this is one of the reasons the Regents compensate people like him so generously, to deal with things like this
how much has the salary for his position gone up in the last 5 years? and how much has the salary for the members of the union increased?
--Richard
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/baycitynews/archive/2005/04/14/strike14.DTL
maybe, if UC hadn't been stalling the negotiations for so long, the new Chancellor wouldn't have these people protesting at his installation events
maybe, if UC hadn't been stalling the negotiations for so long, the new Chancellor wouldn't have these people protesting at his installation events
He's running a university. They're cleaning tables. Please.
The Chancellor doesn't actually do much outside of acting as the public face for the University, and trying to raise funds for research and operations. In otherwards his main job is public relations and trying to sell the university.
Note: this Chancellor is much more intelligent than the last one, as he has already made comments about a lack of diversity in the student body, and even today made comments about UC staff getting screwed in the budgeting process for UC.
Regardless of whether he wants to say he supports the staff or not in their struggle to get by in this area, the new Chancellor is getting "installed" this year at an annual rate that is $70,000 more than the last Chancellor.
And regardless of what you are smoking UCCU, and any other doubters, the university would not work if the workers were not there to keep the gears moving. Chancellor Birgeneau could sell off any part of the University or attend various speaking engagements, and the University still wouldn't work without all the workers represented by CUE, AFSCME, AFT, AGSE, UPTE, CNA, and the building trades.
Note: this Chancellor is much more intelligent than the last one, as he has already made comments about a lack of diversity in the student body, and even today made comments about UC staff getting screwed in the budgeting process for UC.
Regardless of whether he wants to say he supports the staff or not in their struggle to get by in this area, the new Chancellor is getting "installed" this year at an annual rate that is $70,000 more than the last Chancellor.
And regardless of what you are smoking UCCU, and any other doubters, the university would not work if the workers were not there to keep the gears moving. Chancellor Birgeneau could sell off any part of the University or attend various speaking engagements, and the University still wouldn't work without all the workers represented by CUE, AFSCME, AFT, AGSE, UPTE, CNA, and the building trades.
Can you imagine a public university hired scabs! I hope every pro-labor person posting to this website remembers to call them by the traditional labor moniker: Scabs. The "replacement workers" euphemism is the bosses' whitewash of their vicious attack on labor by taking the union workers' jobs away from them with the hiring of strikebreakers or scabs.
As a lifelong California worker, taxpayer, voter, it is long overdue that California labor get off the dime and strike for decent wages, hours and working conditions. The poverty wages of UC workers is unconscionable. The lucrative salaries of the parasites commonly known as chancellor and other executives are unjustifiable and an outright theft of our tax dollars as they are rewards to the lackeys of the capitalist class for singing the company tune.
IT IS ALSO OUTRAGEOUS THAT PROFESSORS CROSSED THE PICKETLINE. They can hold classes off campus in their homes ,in the parks, in cafes. Better yet, they can strike with the classified staff, as happened in 1968 at San Francisco State, when we had a student, worker and professor strike combined.
The chancellor does not run any university. LABOR CREATES ALL WEALTH and it is always the workers that run any institution, business and society in general. When labor withdraws its hand; nothing moves.
The backwardness of the US can only be overcome by a strong labor movement.
I hope the next strike lasts longer than one day. I can assure you the workingclass of California, those of us who sell our labor for less than $70,000 a year, 80% of the US population, is with you. KEEP FIGHTING! STRIKE TO WIN!
SOLIDARITY FOREVER!
As a lifelong California worker, taxpayer, voter, it is long overdue that California labor get off the dime and strike for decent wages, hours and working conditions. The poverty wages of UC workers is unconscionable. The lucrative salaries of the parasites commonly known as chancellor and other executives are unjustifiable and an outright theft of our tax dollars as they are rewards to the lackeys of the capitalist class for singing the company tune.
IT IS ALSO OUTRAGEOUS THAT PROFESSORS CROSSED THE PICKETLINE. They can hold classes off campus in their homes ,in the parks, in cafes. Better yet, they can strike with the classified staff, as happened in 1968 at San Francisco State, when we had a student, worker and professor strike combined.
The chancellor does not run any university. LABOR CREATES ALL WEALTH and it is always the workers that run any institution, business and society in general. When labor withdraws its hand; nothing moves.
The backwardness of the US can only be overcome by a strong labor movement.
I hope the next strike lasts longer than one day. I can assure you the workingclass of California, those of us who sell our labor for less than $70,000 a year, 80% of the US population, is with you. KEEP FIGHTING! STRIKE TO WIN!
SOLIDARITY FOREVER!
Bus drivers make their absence known very quickly for waiting passengers, but many service workers such as janitors do after hours tasks that go unrecognized until they've been gone for a few days, and trash and dirt really starts to pile up. This is one reason why the timing of this strike is very difficult for workers. They will end up working twice as hard when it's over.
It is very important for workers to stand up. Basically, the state is asking low compensated teachers and service workers to charitably shoulder the state's budget deficit. The only fair solution is for all of the pain to equitably be distributed, rather than having a few categories of state employees have to live in 1 bedroom apartments with their kids who attend poor schools and buy low quality food and healthcare so that this fairly wealthy state can settle it's debt. Why not have each property assessed equally for property taxes rather than allowing a few long term owners pay much less than others under prop 13.
It is very important for workers to stand up. Basically, the state is asking low compensated teachers and service workers to charitably shoulder the state's budget deficit. The only fair solution is for all of the pain to equitably be distributed, rather than having a few categories of state employees have to live in 1 bedroom apartments with their kids who attend poor schools and buy low quality food and healthcare so that this fairly wealthy state can settle it's debt. Why not have each property assessed equally for property taxes rather than allowing a few long term owners pay much less than others under prop 13.
Nice pics from the action today.
The reason most serious professors crossed your picket line is because they are scholars whose job is to teach. They are not labor activists, and don't care to be. I'm sure you will find legions of instructors in Ethnic Studies or Rhetoric who will cross your line, but I am talking about serious people. Face it, your strike was a disaster. The university has 33,000 students and almost 20,000 faculty and staff. And 99% of them went about their business without being bothered by you. And as to California "labor" going on strike? Go ahead, you can be replaced by those willing to work. Bet on it.
I don't have any specific numbers, and i did see students and professors who crossed the line, however the campus ddi not seem to be same crowded place as it is ona normal weeekday. It seemed for example that the only people who frew peopel n Sproul Plaza at 12 Noon were the demonstrators attending the rally. It felt a little strange. And i can tell you that very few people attended the Chancellors barbecue and free ice cream social.
Basically what UCCU is saying is serious scholars are indifferent to exploitation.
People like UCCU think their little oasis could function without thousands of poorly-paid and poorly-treated waged-slaves making it go.
I'm not in a position to judge the success or lack thereof of this latest labor action, but I do know that folks like UCCU--haughty, supercilious scum--can be counted among the enemy.
People like UCCU think their little oasis could function without thousands of poorly-paid and poorly-treated waged-slaves making it go.
I'm not in a position to judge the success or lack thereof of this latest labor action, but I do know that folks like UCCU--haughty, supercilious scum--can be counted among the enemy.
If you think 99% of students went to class then you weren't on campus. Thursday is usually crowded from noon to two. There was almost no one on the seats outside of Dwinelle Hall, which is usually packed. I agree with the past post, in that it was a little weird to see the place so deserted.
i agree that the campus did look strangely deserted on thursday. and a lot of professors (many of them at the top of their fields) and graduate student instructors (who were "serious" enough to get into berkeley) did cancel classes. some departments even shut down their offices that day.
The bike racks were emptier, there were fewer people walking around.
The one day strike was a good start. Students, faculty, and staff need to organize together to fight the administration, and in fact the state itself, for control of high quality public education. The parasites running the show are hiking tuition, cutting wages, and pocketing the "profits" (spoils). The only way we can reverse this trend is to fight for control of the university by faculty, staff, and students rather than the capitalist state bureaucracy. Look to the May 1968 events in France or the UNAM strike of 1999 for examples of how it should be done - only extended further, and won permanently rather than temporarily.
If we expect to reverse the current awful trends in the university, we will have to do much more than a one day strike by one union. We'll have to unite all the unions, student groups, the faculty senate, and the entire community and fight back against the onslaught from above.
Labor creates all wealth - the labor of undergraduate and graduate students, janitors, bus drivers, professors, nurses, clericals, construction workers, and many more combine to create the immeasurably valuable intellectual property produced within this university. We are all in this together against capitalism and its state.
UCCU is a bad person.
If we expect to reverse the current awful trends in the university, we will have to do much more than a one day strike by one union. We'll have to unite all the unions, student groups, the faculty senate, and the entire community and fight back against the onslaught from above.
Labor creates all wealth - the labor of undergraduate and graduate students, janitors, bus drivers, professors, nurses, clericals, construction workers, and many more combine to create the immeasurably valuable intellectual property produced within this university. We are all in this together against capitalism and its state.
UCCU is a bad person.
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