Cal Move-In Day Punctuated By the Sounds of Protest

BERKELEY, Calif. (KCBS)  -- Custodians at U.C. Berkeley staged a noisy protest on Sunday as freshman and returning upper classman started moving into the dorms.

Chants of “No Justice, No Peace” and “Escucha, escucha, estamos en la lucha” filled the south side of campus as thousands of students unloaded their boxes of belongings on Move-In Day.

Workers represented by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees had seized the day when parents and moving vans fill the streets north of People’s Park to publicize what they say are not livable wages.

For the last seven years, Guadalupe Castro said, she has earned $24,000 a year to keep student dormitories neat and tidy. “I can't support my family,” she told KCBS reporter Doug Sovern.

That figure is far less than what nearby community colleges Chabot and Peralta pay their janitorial staff, according to AFSCME spokeswoman Deborah Grabelle.

“The community colleges in the area pay a living wage to their custodians, and U.C. Berkeley is unwilling,” Grabelle said.

AFSCME Local 3299 has yet to threaten a strike, but their push for a wage increase has received support from some prominent lawmakers.

Grabelle said union negotiators became frustrated when the university refused to use a $2 million profit posted by its Housing and Dining unit that runs the dormitories to give the janitors a raise.

“U.C. Berkeley pays their executives six-figure salaries, and they have to work two jobs and eat in soup kitchens,” Grabelle said.

No one from Cal’s administration was available to comment. The public information office was closed for the day.

(jro)