Local Events

The Berkeley / UCOP local Action Committee has organized several creative and inspirational events. Care to join the Action Committee? Contact us!

May 2001 - May 2003

August 1998 - December 2000

Berkeley had been having a rolling hunger strike since June 14, 2000 involving over 20 clericals who alternately took turns going on a liquid diet for 24 hours at a time. As of July 19, 2000, one clerical (Jane Fehlberg, shown in the center of this picture) had been on a continuous hunger strike since June 14, 2000. This was done in an effort to bring attention to the dire plight of clericals across the entire UC system who are paid on average 21% below what outside industries and agencies will pay for equal skills and work. Every Wednesday Berkeley clericals gathered at noon for a rally. Here are a few reports on those:

July 26, 2000
We had a terrific rally at noon today. The same number of people as last Wednesday, I think, a couple of hundred. And two Berkeley City Council members spoke, one of whom was so moving she made a few people cry. I'm not kidding. No TV there today, but radio was there, and I saw them having a looooooooooooong interview with Mark Covington (about wages/discrimination at LBNL - at least I THINK that's what they were talking about), who brought some more people down from the hill (LBNL). We marched through Sproul Hall, a central administration building, and one that has held important place in the hearts of social protestors since the 1964 Free Speech Movement, when it was occupied in the interests of free speech. Anyway, the main thing about this building is its outstanding acoustic/echo qualities, and we all beat our saucepans and blew our horns and screamed as loud as we could and it was just a joy to be there.

CUE rules! (Judy Shattuck, Near Eastern Studies)

July 19, 2000
We had a FABULOUS demonstration at noon today about wages. The local Action Committee organized it, and I would guess there were 200 people there, almost all clericals, but with nice turnout from UPTE, too. We nearly circled California Hall, 2 abreast! Everyone had pots and pans and other noisy toys. Radio, TV and newspapers were there. People brought some dynamite signs, and others came with a billion zany chants. The Berkeley Chancellor's office, which refuses to meet with the hunger strikers, did make (on email) a statement that appears to support our wage demands (it was written in "chancellor-ese" and no translators were available). (Judy Shattuck, Near Eastern Studies)

Thanks for the great report Judy. It was really fun. I was interviewed (and so was Elinor Levine) by KCBS radio. When it was over the reporter (who had one of those amazing radio voices) wished us good luck and said he was a union person too. I was also interviewed by a very young, very savvy reporter for the Chinese language newspaper called: Sing Tao. She gave me her email address and asked me to forward our bargaining updates to her. There were other reporters there and a wonderful crowd. One member greeted me and said that since we had started these demos, she's started looking forward to Wednesday noons.

CUE RULES!!!!!!!! (Margy Wilkinson, Library)