Picket Against Custodian Abuse and Speak Out Against Cuts to Education

. Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Rank and File UW workers, International Workers and Students for Justice (IWSJ), and friends  say...

Picket Manager Yang Sook Choe and the Policies of Custodial Services
Join rank and file custodians as they stand up against the latest attacks by management.

Thursday, Oct. 7th, 2010
1:15pm
, UW Seattle Campus, Red Square

For More Info, email IWSJ.Seattle@gmail.com
http://iwsjseattle.blogspot.com/2010/10/no-unpaid-overtime-no-discrimination.htm

Following this picket, as part of the
National Day to Defend Education, the Student Worker Coalition is holding a...
Speak Out/Open-Mic Against the Elite’s Responses to the
Economic Crisis


Thursday, Oct. 7th, 2010
3:30pm
, UW Seattle Campus
Red Square in front of Gerberding Hall
uwstudentworkercoalition@gmail.com
nobudgetcutsuw.blogspot.com

This will be followed by an organizing meeting with the UW Student Worker Coalition.


Background to Custodian Picket:

1) NO Unpaid Overtime
Custodial Manager, Yang Sook Choe, has recently started requiring that custodians in her area stay at their work stations longer, causing them to not be able to clock out until after their shift is over.  This has resulted in forced, unpaid overtime.

2) NO Discrimination
Arriving at work between 4:30 and 5am, many custodians have long used coffee makers and microwaves to make coffee and heat up food during breaks.  All of sudden, manager Choe has mandated that the custodians end their use of these of appliances.  This is clearly a case of discrimination against the lowest paid, primarily immigrant custodial workforce because other staff and faculty at UW have free access to these appliances. 

3) NO Team Cleaning and Retaliation
After custodians in her area spoke out about the overtime and denial of appliance usage, manager Choe retaliated by instituting Team Cleaning, the much-despised form of speed-up that results in injury and exhaustion. 

OCT. 7th - National Day of Action to Defend Education - Speak Out!

.

Oct. 7th, 2010 is the National Day of Action to Defend Education!


Join us for Speak Out/Open-Mic
Speak Out Against the Elite's Responses to the "Economic Crisis"

3:30PM Thursday October 7th, 2010
In front of Gerberding Hall in Red Square at UW Seattle Campus

Followed by an Organizational Meeting of the UW Student/Worker Coalition
uwstudentworkercoalition@gmail.com

  • WE REJECT THE RHETORIC OF THE "ECONOMIC CRISIS" THAT CLAIMS CUTS TO EDUCATION AND SOCIAL SPENDING IN GENERAL ARE A NECESSARY PART OF OUR REALITY. HERE’S WHY:
  • The UW Student/Worker Coalition has organized in response to the drastic budget cuts at UW and the accompanying increased hardships that they bring to on-campus workers and students. We had two walkouts last spring, one of which was the largest demonstration on campus in years.
  • The problem of budget cuts at UW is part of a much larger problem that is shared by the majority of the world – folks who are denied access to a "quality" education and then are told that their only option is to submit themselves to the will of those with capital by working as so-called "unskilled" labor. As it stands there exists only a very small fraction of jobs that guarantee that workers have enough to support themselves and those that they are responsible for supporting.
  • As working class youth, we have been told we need to pursue higher education to progress to a position where we can demand more pay for our "higher-skilled" labor and thus better provide for ourselves and our families.

  •  Because of decades of struggles, poor folks, people of color, LGBT folks, and folks with disabilities have won marginal access to higher education.

  • Now the legislators and Regents are using the "economic crisis", which was created by the wealthy who exploit our communities, as an excuse to take away even this marginal access, turning UW into an even more elitist institution while also cutting off access to other "public" universities, "community" colleges and even public primary and secondary schools.
  • WE WANT A WORLD IN WHICH EDUCATION SERVES THE MUTUAL BENEFIT OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE COMMUNITY AS A WHOLE. WE DENOUNCE THE ELITIST MODEL OF EDUCATION AS IT EXISTS TODAY WHICH IS ONLY SERVING TO CONTINUALLY RECREATE THE CLASS, RACE, AND GENDER OPPRESION.
  • WE NEED A MOVEMENT COMPOSED OF EVERYONE WHO SEEKS A MORE JUST WORLD AND WHO ALSO BELIEVE EDUCATION OUGHT TO SERVE TO CREATE THAT WORLD, NOT PREVENT IT FROM EXISTING

Custodian Demand Letter concerning Manager Yang Sook Choe's Policies

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Demand letter concerning Yang Sook Choe's policies


Dear Gene Woodard, Charles Kennedy, Sattia Sear, Scott Spencer, and Human Resources, 

We are writing this letter on behalf of custodians who have a concern with problems going on in our department. The main problem in the area we work is one of the mangers Yang Sook has been changing some of the rules unfairly. 

For about 18 years we have had 15 minutes to go from our work site to where we clock out. We start 15 minutes before 5 AM. When we're trying to go home we are supposed to leave our buildings early enough to get to the clock station by 1:15 to punch out then. Now Yang Sook wants everyone in her two areas to stay in the buildings where we work until 1:20. There is a distance of up to 20 minutes of a walk to get to the clock station. The clock station is in South Campus. Some people work in upper campus, some work in Health Sciences. It takes a long time to get to the clock station. So Yang Sook is basically expecting us to work between 5 and 25 minutes overtime each day. We raised this with her and asked if we would be paid overtime for it. Yang Sook said we will not be paid overtime and she said we should just walk fast to make it to the clock station in time to punch out. We told her some people walk slower and won't get there in time. Yang Sook said those are excuses, and people should be able to get there on time. But some people have disabilities or injuries related to the overwork we regularly experience and that can make it difficult for us to jog to go clock out. 

When the university changed people to dayshift they set up carpools because the parking situation is difficult during the day. With Yang Sook's changes though, everyone in a carpool will be ready to leave at a different time depending on how far we have to walk to clock out. Some people (who aren’t in Yang Sook’s 2 areas) will get out at 1:15 and people in Yang Sook’s areas will get out between 1:30 and 1:40. It will create a hostile environment for people and will cause fights because some people will be angry at others for having to wait for them, especially if they have to travel long distances to get home. We suspect managers are trying to divide and conquer us by creating this kind of hostile environment. Many of us have already given up our shift differential and our ability to drive our own cars because we were day-shifted and now we need to deal with this. This is not fair.

The second change is Yang Sook put up a set of rules saying we can't use any electricity for personal reasons. Those are rules from 15-18 years ago but we have had 3 contracts where rules have changed. She said no one can make coffee in the closets and no one can heat food. We have no way to heat our food or make coffee or tea. We need to go to the cafeteria to buy these things and it's too expensive. When we start work at 4:45 AM coffee is important. Why do professors and students get to heat up their own food and drink but we don't? Yang Sook has not been flexible and lots of us are getting mad. This is discrimination against employees of the university. Why do you treat us this way when we have been serving the university so well? If you didn't have us working as custodians you wouldn't have a functioning university so it is unfair for you treat us this way. 

We are letting you know about this in the hope that you will make Yang Sook remove these new rules. It is a serious matter and we expect you to change the situation. We are trying to deal with this inside the University by speaking with you first. However, if you do not do something about it in one week, we will have no choice but to share this information with the public and we will let the public know how UW is discriminating against its employees, especially its lowest paid employees who are mostly immigrants and people of color.


Sincerely,

International Workers and Students for Justice and our friends
Sept 28th, 2010

Custodians Continue Fight to Save Swingshift

. Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Below is some media coverage of a rally last week that custodians held to fight the forced move from swingshift to dayshift.

http://www.realchangenews.org/index.php/site/archives/4351/

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kplu/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1662577/KPLU.Local.News/UW.Janitors.Rally.to.Save.Swing.Shift

Next Meeting - Thurs, July 29th, 6pm, Smith Hall 405

. Sunday, June 6, 2010

We're going to be taking a break for part of the summer.  We will have a mid-summer check in meeting on Thursday, July 29th at 6pm in Smith Hall room 405.  The next meeting after that will be a strategizing/planning session before school starts back up in the fall.  That meeting will be Thursday, Sept. 9th, at 6pm in Smith Hall 405.

Next Meeting - Thurs, 5/13 - 6pm, Smith Hall 405

. Sunday, May 9, 2010

FYI: Location change for UWSWC meeting.  The weekly meetings will now be on Thursdays at 6pm in Smith Hall room 405... until further notice.

General Assembly - Tues 5/4 - 5:30 - Suzzallo Cafe

. Monday, May 3, 2010

Following the campus strike on May 3rd, For a Democratic University and the UW Student Worker Coalition are calling a general assembly that is open to all who would like to get involved in organizing the continuing fight against the privatization of our school.  Police are not welcome (plainclothes or in uniform).  The general assembly is Tuesday, May 4th at 5:30 in Suzzallo Cafe.



 

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