Targeted University of California protests

[marmar]

from the San Francisco Chronicle:




Union tries personal tactics on some UC regents
Nanette Asimov, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, March 14, 2010


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dozens of custodians, gardeners, bus drivers and cooks from the University of California snooped around picturesque Fort Baker in Sausalito the other day, trying to figure out where investors from Blum Capital Partners were holding an annual meeting.

They spied the group entering a building. Rushing in, they squeezed past the stunned financiers and marched around a meeting room chanting, "Dick Blum, you can't hide! We can see your greedy side!"

Blum, the company's chairman and a UC regent, is one of several high-profile university leaders to encounter the dramatic, in-your-face tactics of UC's lowest-paid workers.

The individualized protests began last fall after the regents unveiled a cost-cutting strategy that did not spare workers earning less than $40,000 a year.

The tactic stands in contrast to the mass protests March 4 that poured from school and university campuses up and down the state as demonstrators sought to bring the plight of public education to as wide an audience as possible. ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/14/BA551CDONA.DTL&tsp=1

[Hannah Bell]

1. kr

[RandomThoughts]

2. There is something about that article that bothers me.

"The cycle of behavior has been worn thin," said Duckett. "People are less inclined to give them an audience after seeing and experiencing these strong-arm tactics."

Duckett had, in fact, agreed to meet with the workers the day after their protest.

He canceled.

Without directly referring to the guy that ducked the meeting, but more on the concept it seems some people have about there place in society.


There are some in those positions, like Duckett is in, that think they are some how relevant, like meeting with them and discussing things is some kind of a fix to the problem, if they were going to fix it they would because it would be what is the right thing to do.

Meet with them? Why? It is as if they think they deserve some kind of respect or claim to be able to make some kind of decisions.


Note also that 'giving audience' comes from old monarch style concepts.

[lunatica]

3. Yup. It's all a runaround

A few years ago the Chancellor of UC Berkeley met with all the staff on the campus because we had been protesting (marching around California Hall where his office is and we banged on pots and pans). He did all the talking and told us he understood our frustration and that he was immediately appointing a committee to gather information and that they would meet with him in a year. After a year the committee told him they recommended he give us a raise. What did he say? He told us he completely agreed that we all needed more pay but that they simply didn't have the money. The end.

The woman who was the head of the committee resigned in protest.

[mulsh]

4. see, totally open to employee input and better than a blue ribbon

committee for blowing off the peons. you need to keep banging pots and targeting them where the work and live.

[annm4peace]

5. I applaud those fighting for their rights

It is what they are reduced to. It is also a non=violent tactic.

these people need to be confronted again and again. whether it is politicans, regents, eeo's..
they think they can do whatever and don't have to answer to the people and the workers.

[tularetom]

6. I thought that name Dick Blum sounded familiar

Here he is with his significant other, our favorite DINO senator.