UC service workers strike over pay

More than 250 custodians, groundskeepers and their supporters lined up outside the new UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Westwood, carrying sings that read "Taking back UC for patients, Students and Our Families."

"We're standing in front of this new medical center so people can see that they have enough money to build this multi-billion dollar medical center but we can't get a raise," said Tyrone Shoelaces, 40, a food service worker who said he is forced to work a second job at Target to make ends meet.

Monica Martinez, 35, a nursing assistant, was among many patient care workers who honored the picket line. A single parent with four children, Martinez said she also has to work two jobs, including another shift at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

She said patient care workers are also underpaid compared with other area hospitals.

"We should make equal pay for equal work," Martinez said.

Tom Rosenthal, chief medical officer for UCLA hospitals, which includes a branch in Santa Monica, said that the hospitals' emergency rooms remained open and that no surgeries had been canceled. He estimated less than 10% of patient care technical staff did not show up.

But he cautioned that the longer the strike goes on, the greater the threat to patient care would be.

"What makes this strike so dangerous is we don't know from day to day who might show up," he said. "If we have to close the emergency department, we'd be putting the people of California at risk."

The workers, members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, say they are paid 25% less than workers who hold similar jobs at community colleges and private hospitals. UC and the union have been negotiating a new contract since last year without success, and the union had voted to strike if its demands were not met.

The contract dispute is taking place as the UC system faces severe funding shortages. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a budget for next year that would leave the university $240 million short of covering its costs.

Union President Lakesha Harrison has argued that the university has the funds to pay the food service, custodial, medical and other workers a decent wage but that it is not a priority for the university. Some top UC officials, she noted, have received large pay increases.

"No one's trying to get rich here," she said earlier this month. "It makes no sense that the world-renowned University of California cannot pay its workers at least what community colleges in their areas are paying."

She defended the union's strategy of asking prominent supporters such as former President Clinton and former state Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez to cancel their UC commencement addresses, arguing that the university has had many months to negotiate a new contract. One contract expired last fall; the other early this year.

gale.holland@latimes.com