As members of the UCSC community, we are concerned and upset when some among us are denied the means to achieve reasonable living standards, and continually treated with disrespect by their high-profile employer. The mistreatment of CUE and AFSCME workers is an offense to the values we hold as a community: gender and racial justice, and wages that enable everyone to live with dignity. Supporting service and clerical workers in their fight for fair contracts is a crucial part of realizing these values.

Moreover, we recognize that the same skewed budget priorities resulting in poverty wages for campus clerical and service workers are also responsible for our diminished funding opportunities. Graduate students, campus workers, undergraduates, and faculty all have a common concern: UC’s undemocratic budgetary process and the gross mal-distribution that results. Behind the crass injunction to ‘fuck the regents’ is stealth analytic accuracy.

The UC’s claims that the fiscal situation is ‘tight,’ are hard to believe when the University of California can afford to give out 2.4 million dollars in executive bonuses UC-wide and create a $192,000 job for the incoming Chancellor’s partner, all while systematically ignoring the basic needs of workers, raising student fees and cutting academic programs. These pay raises and ‘perks’ are a slap in the face to students and workers who are struggling to make ends meet and are indicative of the overall moral poverty of this institution.

It is clear to us that the University has their priorities in the wrong place. Administrators should not be receiving bonuses and raises when 83% of Clerical and Service Workers make less than a living wage. The University is a public institution and such should serve the public good, not the interests of an elite few.

We at The Project (and we know we are not alone in our sentiments) feel that it is time to take a stand. The exploitation of students and workers must stop. AFSCME and CUE have tried in vain to bargain with the UC for close to a year. The University has consistently ignored the worker’s demands, giving the unions no choice but to go out on a statewide strike on April 14. The voices of students and workers must be heard, and until they are, there will be no business as usual at the University of California. On Thursday April 14th, don’t go to class or to the dining halls. Take a stand for economic justice and join the picket line at the base of campus.

An injury to one is an injury to all!

Sincerely,
The Project Collective

THEPROJECT (at) STUDENTMEDIA.UCSC.EDU

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Want action?

Join the Student and Worker Coalition for Justice.

Meetings: Every Thursday at 8pm in Porter C002 (Below the Hungry Slug).

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The purpose of this newspaper collective is to document and inspire strategic radical actions that are relevant to local, regional, and global socioeconomic justice. We believe independent media plays a crucial role in facilitating dialogue, organizing mass mobilizations, and encouraging daily acts of
resistance.