www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/08/27/BA124694.DTL
A few offices and small libraries were forced to close, nurses stayed off the job at the student health center, and unions representing lecturers and graduate teaching assistants pledged to join the three-day strike, the first major walkout on the campus in 30 years. Leaders of the clerical workers' union said the strike's impact exceeded expectations, while campus officials said disruption was minimal, with most classes going on as scheduled. UC clerical workers have been without a contract since November, and lecturers have been working without a contract for more than two years. They are seeking better wages and working conditions and accuse the university of unfair labor practices in the bargaining for a new contract, a charge denied by UC. The university has branded the strike illegal and filed an Unfair Labor Practices complaint, which joins several already filed by the workers. The strike is being closely watched on other UC campuses, whose school year starts later than Berkeley's and where discontent also runs high among campus workers. Clerical workers at UC San Francisco authorized a strike last week. The contract for the clerical workers, represented by the Coalition of University Employees, applies to UC systemwide. A second union representing about 600 lecturers on campus, University Council-American Federation of Teachers, announced last week it will join the strike for one day Wednesday, and the union representing about 2,500 graduate teaching assistants, tutors and readers on campus, United Auto Workers local 2865, announced that it is asking its members not to cross picket lines. With whistles blaring and picket signs held high, strikers and their sympathizers gathered at about 20 campus entrances Monday morning. The union also staged a smaller strike at the systemwide office of the UC president in Oakland. Studies show that UC employees' compensation has failed to keep up with inflation and market rates, but UC says it is hindered by state budget shortfalls. A survey by campus officials of the largest departments, which together employ about 1,000 clerical workers, showed that about 40 percent of the clerical staff stayed off the job Monday, said campus spokeswoman Janet Gilmore. The union's chief negotiator, Margy Wilkinson, said the number is about 1,900, with an additional 400 at the office of the president in Oakland. Nurses belonging to the California Nurses Association went on strike at student health services, but all students who needed care were seen by doctors and nurse managers, said health services spokesman Eric Zarate. Work on major seismic retrofit projects also stopped or slowed significantly as many construction workers honored picket lines. No one had an estimate for the number of classes that were canceled or moved to different locations. A random check of students and classroom doors found several canceled, ranging from Asian American studies and anthropology to art and tennis. The English department printed up a stack of "Class Canceled Today" forms with blanks for the particular class, though department chairwoman Janet Adelman said she believes most will be rescheduled. Several had cancellation notices on the door, while one on "female subjects" was moved to La Val's pizza, and a senior seminar was relocated eight blocks south of campus to the instructor's home. The math department's business office was shut down by the strike, according to UC officials, and strike leaders said they were told that the anthropology department, the Institute of Industrial Relations and several departments in the College of Environmental Design also were closed. Attempts to get confirmation from those departments or UC officials were unsuccessful. The Institute of Industrial Relations library was closed for the strike's duration, according to a message on its phone, and a library worker at the College of Environmental Design said the Visual Resources Library was closed. Most of the picket signs said, "Unfair Labor Practice Strike. Strikers wore T-shirts saying UC has "$2 billion in the bank," a sum that Horning called "a surplus" that could be used to boost benefits and wages.
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