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UC officials earn failing grades from union reps

The University Professional and Technical Employees union had a protest party at the UCLA Medical Center yesterday.

Carrying balloons and the gift of a failing grade on labor relations, UPTE members made their delivery to the offices of Dr. Gerald Levey, provost of medical sciences, and Dr. Michael Karpf, director of the medical center. Neither was in their office.

“We’ve graded the university, and they failed,” said Cliff Fried, executive vice president of UPTE.

Contracts for three units of employees UPTE represents – technical, health care and research workers – are currently in the midst of bargaining.

Fried said the university has been reluctant at the bargaining table and in providing information the union requests.

But UC spokesman Dan Kier said the university is doing its best to respond to the information requests and has all its chips on the bargaining table.

“All the money we have is there on the table,” Kier said. “We’re offering to work within budget allocations.”

Fried said there is a $1.9 billion pool of unrestricted funds the university could use to increase wages .

“This is what’s in their present stockpile of money,” he said.

Though the fund is designated unrestricted, Kier said the name was for accounting uses only and that he’s “not sure if they could be used for wages.”

He said the university hired additional staff to deal with the information requests but that it’s difficult to meet multiple requests in the same week. The university recently reached agreements on five contracts with the Federated University Police Officer Association, Coalition of University Employees and American Federation of State, County and Municipal employees unions.

Fried said he expects to settle the UPTE contracts by the beginning of next year.

Spanish civil war film shown

The Spanish civil war was the subject of a documentary presentation and discussion in Royce Hall on Wednesday afternoon.

The documentary film, “Dreams and Nightmares”, was presented by Abe Osheroff, a former UCLA history professor who fought in the Spanish Civil war from 1936-1939.

Osheroff, now 85, was a member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a group of American progressives who fought alongside Spanish republican forces against fascism in Spain during the 1930s.

Osheroff, who has also been an activist in Mississippi during the 1960s, Central America during the 1980s, and in Seattle during last year’s WTO protests, reflected on the importance of the Spanish Civil War.

“Why study this little war?” Osheroff said. “Fascism was growing all over the world without resistance. The Spanish Civil war was the first time people stood up and said no.”

Supermarket janitors file lawsuit

Janitors claiming they were paid below minimum wage and refused overtime filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday against three supermarket chains and a cleaning contractor.

The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of about 600 janitors who say they clean Vons, Albertson’s, and Ralphs supermarkets throughout the state, said Blanca Gallegos, a spokeswoman for the Service Employees International Union.

“The janitors are seeking the money that they are owed for the unpaid hours and also for the supermarkets to take responsibility,” Gallegos said. “The cleaning contractor is illegally classifying the janitors as independent contractors to cut costs.”

Compiled from Daily Bruin Staff and Wire reports.

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