UC Berkeley skilled trades workers rally for higher wages, lower healthcare costs outside California Hall | Campus

About 50 demonstrators representing the Skilled Crafts Unit, which represents UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory skilled trades workers, rallied outside California Hall on Tuesday to fight for a contract that would increase their wages and reduce healthcare costs.

The contingent first gathered at 11 a.m., marching to the end of Sproul Plaza. The rally lasted 30 minutes — the duration of the workers’ lunch break.

“We’re seeking a tentative agreement in multiple articles in the contract,” said Emiliano Cochise Silva, the union’s chief steward. “We’re seeking better compensation, better healthcare to match our neighboring unions at the UC.”

The skilled trades workers’ current contract expires Sept. 30.

The Skilled Crafts Unit, or the KB unit, represents 200-plus skilled and trained workers across campus. The unit is a member of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Alameda County, a coalition of 28 affiliated unions representing workers across construction trades.

The Berkeley union is seeking a cap on healthcare increases, something that has already been given to other UC system-affiliated unions, according to Mike Hursh, the union’s assistant to the chief steward. According to Hursh, the current healthcare premium rate, or the health insurance amount that the employee is expected to pay monthly, does not have a cap.

According to Silva, skilled trades workers make 90% of the prevailing wage, the rate that outside contractors make when hired by campus, and are fighting to increase their pay to match those wages.

The union is also pursuing improvements in on-call pay, how much union members make while on-call for work.

“I believe in good conversation for good pay,” Silva said. “Skilled and trained labor are expensive, but so are things on the outside, the cost to get to work, gas is going up, taxes are going up in California. It’s only right that skilled labor gets proper compensation.”

At the same time as KB unit members and supporters massed outside California Hall, another group of union supporters gathered at Berkeley Lab, Silva said.

The demonstrations follow the UC system renegotiating several union contracts for campus employees. In early July, the Teamsters union representing more than 22,000 clerical and administrative services employees renegotiated for further healthcare benefits in its contract with the UC system.

The demonstrating union workers were joined in solidarity by members of AFSCME 3299, which represents more than 37,000 UC system employees. Other Building and Construction Trades Council of Alameda County members also joined union members in protesting.

“We appreciate everybody that came out, both our members, folks from the community, the other unions,” said Tizoc Arenas, Business Representative for the Building and Construction Trades Council of Alameda County. “That’s how these fights are won. It has to be through coalition work, and it has to be standing in unity with one another.”