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By David King

Daily Bruin Contributor

Pamphlets for the UCLA Conference Center at Lake Arrowhead paint it as peaceful and relaxing – but many of its employees describe it differently.

Some employees, such as grounds keepers and kitchen staff, disagree with the university’s discouragement of unionization and the practice of “casual employment,” in which employees are fired for a small period of time so the employer doesn’t have to pay benefits a career employee would receive.

A housekeeper at the conference center who wished to remain anonymous said despite working six days a week all year long, she has not yet received full-time or career employee status.

“At this point, I’ve been here six years. I deserve to be full-time,” she said.

The center is used for various conferences and functions for UCLA staff.

Nancy Noble, the director of the conference center, denied the worker’s allegations.

“We don’t have situations where we aren’t following the policies that I know of,” Noble said. “We treat all our employees equally.

“Right here, we’re isolated from campus, so we hope that we try and address every situation that the workers bring to us.”

Casual employment practices by the university are not uncommon, according to Jose Hernandez, an organizer for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the union that is working to organize workers at the facility.

“The majority of people up there are casual employees,” Hernandez said, referring to the roughly 80 service employees at Lake Arrowhead. “They are basically keeping people as casual to not give them benefits (and) vacation time.”

Noble denied allegations of improper employment practices at the conference center. She said confusion may arise because of the nature of employment, which has varying workloads during different seasons.

“We are a little different here, because we are truly seasonal, so our people who work in grounds we hire from March to November,” Noble said. “We do have some people who have been with us for a long time also working these sort of seasonal jobs.”

She added that seasonal employees, particularly in the housekeeping department, work less in the summer months, not more.

“They go down to between 20 to 30 hours a week, and sometimes less than that,” Noble said.

But the housekeeper said she has worked more hours this summer because many departments have fewer employees.

“We’re understaffed, we’re overworked and we’re tired,” she said.

As a casual employee, she said she is periodically fired and re-hired by the university, and expects to be fired for three days this September.

Another housekeeper, who also wished to remain anonymous, said administrators recently presented employees with an agreement in which they would agree to work every Saturday.

Because she did not sign the agreement, the housekeeper said she will not receive her tip check – a portion of the total tips received at the center.

But Noble said the paper was only a clarification of the employees’ existing contract, and having them sign the agreement was simply a way to ensure that the workers were aware of the stipulations of their contract.

The stipulation was made after several workers protested their work hours by saying they weren’t aware they had to work Saturdays though it was in their contract, Noble said.

“We go strictly by our hiring agreements,” she said. “We just wanted to make sure they knew (this policy).”

She said the conference center is a good work environment for its employees.

“We have a close working environment, and we want everyone to feel appreciated,” Noble said.

But service employees disagree, and suggest some administration policies are racist towards the minorities employed.

“If you don’t speak the language, you don’t get promoted,” the first housekeeper said. “If you’re white, they think you’re educated and better qualified.”

“They know already who will be assistants or at the front desk,” she continued. “We don’t have hope for another step.”

Shirley Bennett, a member of the kitchen staff, concurred.

Regarding supervisor positions, Bennett said administrators usually hire people from outside the conference center, “rather than promote someone who’s here, someone who is more qualified.”

Noble said long-time employees are encouraged to apply for promotions, but often don’t. She denied that any discrimination occurs at the facility.

“It just depends on who walks in the door that’s qualified, never mind what color they are,” Noble said.

She added that about three of the 12 supervisors at the center are non-whites.

Employees such as Bennett also complained that union representation has been discouraged by the conference center management.

Because of such discouragement, Bennett said she now holds union meetings at home, rather than at work during their off hours.

Hernandez, who has made several trips to the conference center, agreed with Bennett.

“They want to prevent the union from going there and talking to people,” Hernandez said. “If they have the right to talk about the football game the night before, they also have the right to talk about the union.”

“That’s what they call interrupting things,” he continued, referring to administrators.

But Noble said union representatives are allowed to talk to employees, just not while they are working.

“Our only counsel to them was not to talk to our employees on their work time,” Noble said. “I’ve had to tell them that repeatedly.”

“We’ve had a horrible time with the unions,” she added.

Despite such disapproval, Hernandez said the union plans to continue pursuing efforts at the conference center, though he doesn’t expect significant results anytime soon.

“In the end, this is going to be a long labor struggle,” Hernandez said.