By Rachel Brahinsky

First the governor proposed a rule change that could eliminate lunch breaks for California workers. Now, if a new report about the University of California is correct, it seems lunchroom workers themselves are paid so little at UC campuses that many of them qualify for nine public subsidies for the poor, including food stamps and public housing.

Throngs of workers showed up in San Francisco Feb. 8 to protest Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to change the state's lunch break rules. The majority were low-wage laborers who told tales of workplace harassment and pressures they said would be exacerbated by efforts to make lunch breaks "flexible" (see "No Free Lunch," 2/2/05).

One week later low-wage workers planned to rally again, this time taking aim at the UC Regents for their low pay scales. Food service workers with kids have it the worst, according to a National Economic Development and Law Center study, which was commissioned by the UC service workers union, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 3299. Single food service employees with two kids qualify for state-funded health care, housing, free lunches, help with energy bills, and child care subsidies, it says.

In claiming this status they join thousands of others. In 2002, the report notes, the state spit out $10.1 billion to pay for benefits to subsidize employers' low wages across the state.

Could California, with its budget quagmire, afford to pay workers more? AFSCME seems to think so. The union points to the fact that the system only depends on the state for 19 percent of its budget, so the state's money woes shouldn't be a key factor in workers' pay. They also note that the UC Regents spent more than $2.4 million last year on bonuses for top executives (see "Bonuses for the Bigwigs," 2/9/05) and that other public school systems, including California State University and most of the state's community colleges, pay significantly more for the same work.

AFSCME isn't the only group angling for more money. On Feb. 16 the Coalition of University Employees, which represents clerical workers at UC schools, was scheduled to release documents suggesting UC diverts money intended for clerical salaries to pay for bonuses for the chancellors.

So far, UC won't budge. "The state budget is our single largest and our most reliable fund source," UC spokesperson Noel Van Nyhuis told the Bay Guardian. "Regrettably, over the last two years we haven't received funding from the state for salary increases." Van Nyhuis said that the legislature is looking at a plan right now that would provide system-wide raises next year.

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