By Deirdre Newman
Investigative Reporter
Custodial workers at UCI felt the heat this week – and not just from the scorching temperatures. On Thursday, a small group of these workers mounted a peaceful protest, carrying signs and shouting slogans like “Yes We Can!” outside the Student Center.
The protest comes on the heels of pink slips handed out to 49 custodial workers, who subcontract with ABLE, earlier this week. These 49 represent about one-third of the entire custodial workforce at UC Irvine. In a letter to the UCI campus community on Tuesday, Vice Chancellor Wendell C. Brase, explained that reductions in service levels are due to the enormous reduction in state budget support.
Thursday’s protest was an effort to fight back against the layoffs and show the university that these workers are an integral part of the campus, said Scott Zimmerman, a student with the Worker-Student Alliance. Zimmerman passed out fliers blaming the University for laying off these workers to stop them from organizing to become full-fledged employees.
“By further understaffing an already overworked workforce, UCI administrators have chosen to risk the health and safety of students, faculty and visitors,” the flier states.
UC Irvine did not lay off the workers, according to Cathy Lawhon, Director, Media Relations & Community Outreach. The campus reduced its contracted level of service with outside labor providers, Lawhon said, via email. These workers could have been placed elsewhere by the service contractor, she added.
Custodial workers make about $12 an hour, up from about $9 an hour in 2008, Zimmerman said. There is an effort underway to get these workers directly hired by the University, so they can then be represented by AFSCME, he added. If that were to happen, the custodial workers would get full benefits and make $13.50 an hour and get more sick and vacation days. Currently, they only get two sick days a year, he said.
UC Irvine has been discontinuing outsourced contracts over the past several years, according to Lawhon. About 275 employees have been hired as a result of this effort, Lawhon added, including about 200 food-service workers and 60 groundskeepers who were hired directly in 2007, as well as an additional 18 recycling workers hired in 2010.
One custodian who was directly hired is Elvia Ramirez, who had been working at UCI as a contract worker for 23 years before she was finally hired. Ramirez was profiled in a UCI Communications article in July 2010. She still works for UCI.
On Sept. 8, Efren Islas, 42, of Irvine, came out to support those who got pink slips that week. He had gotten one a few weeks earlier, along with five others. He had worked on campus for four years as an irrigation mechanic. He cried when he got his, he said.
“It’s kind of frustrating,” he said. “It was a surprise. I wasn’t expecting it.”
The union that currently represents these workers, ASUCI, is fighting to get his job back, he said. With a wife who isn’t working and four children at home, Islas said he feels hopeless sometimes.
“At least we’re doing something today,” he said.
He came out to voice his frustration that more of his coworkers will soon be without a job.
“Every person here represents a household – with kids and families,” he said.