Link: UC Workers on Strike

Workers on strike at a University of California campus, May 7, 2018. 

Photo Credit Meagan Day

Megan Day at Jacobin delves into how the UC Strike is a fight against privatization of the university and the education system:

One of the main battles AFSCME workers face is the constant threat of seeing their jobs outsourced to nonunion workers employed by for-profit companies. As the university increasingly privatizes aspects of its operations, workers employed by the institution are always looking over their shoulder, fearful that their jobs will evaporate overnight and they’ll be replaced by workers who answer to a different boss. “Every day we’re paying attention to when we see new faces on board,” said [UC Berkeley custodian Maricruz] Manzanares. “Suddenly we see a new group of workers and we don’t even know who they are, until we talk to each other and the union and we find out they belong to a company. Lately the university has developed shady techniques. They used to do it openly, but now they’re finding ways to do it in the dark.” Either way, she said, “the university does not behave as a public institution.”

The three day strike ended Wednesday, but UC's response and the question of further action are up in the air.

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