Posted on 04/14/2016 12:31:40 PM PDT by Hojczyk
In the past, left-wing student activists at UC Berkeley have joined unions in pushing for higher wages, including a “living wage,” for campus staff. Campus minimum wages have lagged behind local minimum wages because the university, as a public state institution, is exempt from local minimums.
On Monday, University of California Berkeley chancellor Nicholas Dirks announced that the educational institution will be eliminating 500 jobs over the course of two years, which will wind up saving an estimated $50 million.
“My concern and the public’s concern is that UC Berkeley is going to start cutting the people it can ill afford to lose — the people who clean buildings, who work in food services or health clinics,” Todd Stenhouse, spokesman for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represents workers at Berkeley, told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Berkeley employs about 8,500 staffers, from custodians to administrators, the Chronicle notes. Faculty members will not be affected by the employment reductions, which will take place through attrition.
Departments on campus were reportedly also told to reduce their budgets by 10 percent in whatever way they wish.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
To understand what is really going on, you have to understand the union exemption.
Non-union companies have to pay $15/hour. Union companies can pay less.
Always found it interesting to watch what happens when there is a RIF. For example, if an organization needs to cut $100,000, rather than cut one person making that much, ten, who are making $10,000 and actually performing a task, are cut.
Janitors for Justice was where this nonsense all began and it started in CA.
They then mutated into SEIU
“Berkeley employs about 8,500 staffers” and has an enrollment of 37,581. Seems like cutting 500 should just be a start-— it would take them to a 4.7 ratio of student to staffer. That’s only slightly better than the current 4.42 student to staffer ratio...
Although the states have the 10th Amendment-protected power to set minimum wage, this exemption stuff is the same mentality as corrupt Congress exempting itself from unconstitutional Obamacare imo.
Both federal and state governments are arguably granting themselves special privileges which the states have expressly prohibited in the Constitution.
Article I, Section 9, Clause 8: No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States [emphasis added]: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.
Article I, Section 10, Clause 1: No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility [emphases added].
LOL OK kids looks like you are going to have to start cooking and cleaning up after yourselves for free.
Think of it as an unpaid internship you will get valuable experience in the fast food and house cleaning industry.
I worked for a union in CA that covered those workers. On top of their wages, the get a lot of paid time off, free or almost free cadillac health plans for employee and family, and a defined benefit retirement plan that leaves a janitor better off in retirement than many in the private sector. It all adds up.
Be that as it may, the union contracts are directly tied to the minimum wage. This is a benefit that is already baked into the cake.
Do you think the unions and the $15/hr crowd are going to care when a company like “Momentum Machines” can make a burger to order every 10 seconds, and not just assist workers but displace them completely.
500 fewer paid employees.
That much closer to free college!
“But the grand goal is to increase union pay that is above minimum wage since many, if not most, are tied to the minimum wage.”
What is interesting is that the unions are in many cases exempt from new min wage laws thus allowing the unions to bid lower than the non-union section.
Robots!!!
Since faculty members don’t exactly work long hours, they could be assigned other duties. Department heads would empty trashcans; full professors could vacuum, sweep, and dust; assistant professors could clean the restrooms.
Let me just cut off my right hand because im a lefty and I could survive with one, besides I will only have to by one glove instead of two in the winter
The bidding process in Wisconsin is tied to the “prevailing wage”, which means the job doesn’t go to the lowest bidder squeezing out he smaller non-union companies. Hence all the big contracts go to the largest unionized companies. They collude and divide the jobs based on where the job is to be done geographically, especially to road projects. The two major road builders bid but one gets all the contracts in the east and south, the other gets the west and north.
I have not ever heard of a union shop bidding a job lower that non-union shops.
University of California Berkeley chancellor Nicholas Dirks earns $486,000 a year plus a very rich benefit and retirement package.
But he announced the cuts will be at the bottom. Typical of the problem.
The guy makes more in a week than the workers he cut make in a year. Big problems when that happens in a society.
“I bet not many of those will be high salary bureaucrats”
Yep, just like the University of Missouri cuts just announced, all of them facilities positions. We have all seen how leftist clean up after themselves. Absolutely the worst possible decision, a downward spiral that they will never pull out of shorts of Marxists politicians bailing them out.
Maybe free for illegals. My eldest daughter graduated from U.C.Berkeley. Expensive, and costs were increased every year she attended. They're cutting 500 out of 8500 workers. Small potatoes. They should be cutting 25 percent of their staff to make a difference. My daughter graduated over 15 years ago, yet the school constantly calls seeking donations. I won't give them a dime over what we paid for tuition, and keep blocking their calls. We're on a no-call list but they keep calling, rotating on a couple dozen phone numbers. Leeches. Sometimes I answer and yell at them to vote conservative until they hang up. Good news is that my daughter graduated in four years and is making great salaries, bad news is the school is calling me for donations. Leeches.
So many ridiculous things in one article. Its absurd that government is exempt from the minimum wage they impose on businesses. Boy it sure is getting annoying how many different rules, regulations and laws that the lawmakers exempt for themselves. But what does laying off 500 people have to do with the minimum wage, when the article says they will save $50 million that comes to $100,000 per employee - much more than the minimum wage.
Oh, the delicious irony of it all.
Life lesson,..... Layoffs happen
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