Rosalva Alcala lives with her adult daughter and two grandkids in Oxnard. She works at UCSB as a custodian.
She said she can’t afford to live in Santa Barbara. She makes about $24 an hour, and right now, she’s on workers compensation leave because of a shoulder injury.
“As a matter of fact, a lot of my co-workers have been getting hurt because UC doesn’t hire. The wages are very low, and a lot of that work is given to people who are working,” Alcala said. “A lot of people are overloaded. They are getting hurt.”
Alcala was one of about 100 people who attended a rally Wednesday at UCSB to demand better wages, affordable health care, housing security, job security and safe staffing.
The workers, represented by the union AFSCME 3299, include custodians, groundskeepers, security officers, health care technicians and others.
The union held three rallies, at 8 a.m., noon and 3:30 p.m., at the UCSB library. The union is asking for a three-year contract, with increases of 9%, 8% and 8% each year. UC has offered a 5% across-the-board increase in 2025 and to move the minimum wage for AFSCME employees to $25 an hour. The UC system also wants a five-year contract.
“All of our costs are going up, for health care, for housing, for parking — every single thing prices have been going up,” said Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval, a Chicano and Chicana studies professor at UCSB. “Workers deserve a better wage.”
Armbruster-Sandoval said the UC system always claims it is poor when it comes to giving wage increases, but it seems to find the money for chancellors and high-ranking officials.
“They have money for those guys, don’t they?” Armbruster-Sandoval said. “So, don’t they have money for people who are keeping our university clean, making it look as amazing as it does?”
In a statement to Noozhawk, the UC system said: “While all public employers face a difficult budget cycle, UC’s wage package is designed to support our valued employees, putting more money into their pockets so that they use it in a way that best meets their needs.”
The two sides have been working on a new contract since January.
Among the people at the rally was groundskeeper Serafin Zamora. He said the wages are too low and many of the workers have to share rooms to survive.
“The rents are so high,” Zamora said. “You pay $1,200 for maybe one room, so when the wages are so low and the rents are so high, it’s not a good balance. Everyone is struggling.”
He said some of his co-workers sleep in their vehicles and have three jobs. Most of the workers earn about $45,000 a year, he said.
“It’s not right,” Zamora said. “They don’t have time to see their family. When you have two jobs, what time do you have to see your son or your daughter? You don’t have time. We are asking for good wages.”
Jeremy Goldberg, executive director of the Central Coast Labor Council, said Wednesday that the 75 unions affiliated with the labor council “stand here with you in solidarity.”
Goldberg said all unions need to stand together and resist the UC’s efforts to pit them against each other.
“When we fight, we win, but when we fight, we all win,” Goldberg said.
The rally was led by Wendy Santamaria, labor organizer for AFSCME 3299. She fired up the crowd to begin and end the rally and march.
“This isn’t over, and it’s not going to be over until all of us win — all of us, not just one union or another, everyone,” Santamaria said. “When we stand in solidarity, we are coming against the same common enemy: the UC.”
Oxnard resident Alcala said the UC system is “very greedy,” and although they have money, “nothing is passed down.”
“At first, I thought highly of the UC system,” she said, “but as I work here and I started to know them a little bit more, now I am kind of embarrassed that I even work here.”
