UC Davis Students, Contracted Out Workers Rally

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UC Davis Students, Contracted Out Workers Rally
for Affordable Health Care, Fair Wages, Respect

UCD is the Last of all 10 UC Campuses and 5 Medical Centers to Still Contract Out Food Service Workers

Davis, March 1 2007- Hundreds of UC Davis contracted out workers and their supporters will rally at the University of California Davis to demand university jobs with the same benefits, wages and respect that all UC employees receive.

Faced with excessive health insurance costs and poverty wages, contracted out employees work within feet of university workers who benefit from the more affordable health care, higher wages, union representation, and respect that comes along with UC employment. “It’s just not fair, we work so hard for this school but we are not respected” says Lidia Uribe, a cook with seven years of service, “People know that I work at the university but what they don’t understand is that I don’t work for the UC. But I deserve to.”

In recent years, contracted out food service workers at UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Irvine have successfully campaigned to become University employees. The UC Davis campus is the last of the UC systems 10 campuses and 5 medical centers, including UCD Medical Center in Sacramento, to still contract out food service. Currently, UC Davis contracts out over 550 food service and custodial jobs to private companies including French food service provider Sodexho.

The workers have gained the support of various community leaders. “UC Davis has a responsibility to provide fair benefits and a living wage to all its employees, whether or not they are subcontracted.” says Davis City Councilmember and UC Davis alumnus Lamar Heystek, one of the scheduled speakers at the rally.

Thursday’s rally is the first public demonstration by the workers who intend to show the university the support they have and to make their demands clear to UC administration they deserve university jobs.

The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 3299 is the union of 18,000 service and patient care workers throughout the UC system. In the past few years AFSCME has eliminated contracted out food service work at UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, UC Merced, UC San Francisco, UCSD and UC Irvine, ensuring that the UC is accountable to the communities they are in by providing workers with the significantly improved wages and more affordable health care benefits that come with direct University employment and Union representation.

What: Public demonstration supporting workers’ demand to become direct University employees
When: Thursday March 1st: march from Memorial Union Patio at 11:15am, rally at Mrak Hall at 11:45am, ending at 12:30pm
Where: UC Davis Campus on the Memorial Union (MU) Patio, Mrak Hall
(Please see attached map)
# # #