AFSCME on Strike: Support Service and Patient Care Workers!

On this page, you can find information about why you should support AFSCME and resources to help express your solidarity. Check it out, and when you're done, don't forget to sign the pledge not to cross the picket lines on June 4 - 5.

Why you should support AFSCME

There are many reasons that you should support AFSCME. We give just a few of them here:

Their cause is just: The basic demand that AFSCME is making is very simple: equal pay for equal work. UC patient care and service workers are paid on average 25% less than workers doing comparable work at other medical centers and community colleges.

The University of California is one of the richest and most powerful corporations in the world, but it refuses to pay decent wages to its employees. Many AFSCME workers struggle to support a family on $10/hour wages, or take second and third jobs to make ends meet. UC refuses to pay them a living wage, while at the same time they found $9,000,000 for renovations to the UC Presidential mansion.

There's strength in unity: AFSCME workers are employed by the same corporation -- the University of California -- which fights us tooth and nail every time our contract is renegotiated. The outcome of AFSCME's struggle is extremely important for establishing the tone and atmosphere that we'll deal with when we start bargaining for a new contract next year.

If you've been a UAW member for one or two (or more) contract cycles, you know that UC won't give up anything without a fight and an application of serious pressure, both from our members and from other UC unions. If we help AFSCME win a stronger contract right now, they will be in a stronger position to help us next time we're facing off with UC.

They've helped us before: Of course, that talk about help with applying pressure on UC is not just abstract. AFSCME has helped us when we've negotiated before. They've come to our rallies, helped us reach students and other members of the campus community, and done whatever else we asked them to do.

AFSCME has practiced concrete solidarity with us before. Now we have a responsibility to do the same for them.

A UCSC student has produced a short documentary in which AFSCME workers explain in their own voices why they're fighting for a fair contract. Check it out right here.

What you can do to help

Right now, the most useful thing you can do is to educate yourself about this situation, and talk to other people, especially other ASEs. You can use the documents and information on this page to get started. Another great resource is AFSCME's homepage, available here.

You can also get involved with UAW-QUAD on your campus. The best way to do this is to talk to a UAW-QUAD member that you know. You can also contact us using our website contact form. And you can join the Facebook group ASEs for AFSCME to stay connected to the struggle.

AFSCME hopes that a strike can be averted. But if they are forced to strike, we have some simple advice for how you can support AFSCME:

Dos and Don'ts for ASEs: Your guide to the AFSCME strike

And don't forget to sign the pledge:

I won't cross the picket lines!

Analysis and information

Who calls the shots at UC? Even the UC administration itself might not be able to answer that question. But you can read our exploration here:

Meet the UC administration

Here are some documents that may also be of interest:

• Executive salaries and bonuses at UC medical centers
• UC finances fact sheet
• Neutral factfinder's report

Resources

• Trifold brochure: Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) | MS Word (.doc)
  
• Small poster (8.5x11): Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) | MS Word (.doc)
• Classroom solidarity kit: Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) | MS Word (.doc)
• "Strike Do's and Don'ts" poster: Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) | MS Word (.doc)
• Solidarity pledge for ASEs (with request for faculty support): Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) | MS Word (.doc)
• Solidarity pledge for ASEs (without faculty request): Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) | MS Word (.doc)

NB: Examine these documents carefully before reproducing them in large quantities, as layouts can shift significantly from one computer to another. In addition, some of these documents are tailored for use at Santa Cruz. If you need a document changed for your campus (or better yet -- if you have your own altered version that you'd like to see posted on this page), contact us here.