Some one asked for this as a diary, so here we go. The time was 2013, and we were going through lay-offs and contract Negotiations. I was a M.A.T. (Member Action Team) leader at the time, (we used to joke that we were called mats because the folks on both sides of us walked all over us, but I digress :) ).
It was the end of summer, we had 5 contracts up for re-negotiation, Three Custodial (Custodial Medical Workers, Regular Custodial for class rooms and offices, and Custodial for Dormitories where I worked) and the Nurses in the two UC hospitals and the campus medical centers. The U.C. Reagents had screwed up big time, as they weren’t supposed to allow that to happen. First Rule of Negotiations, never allow two or more group contracts to become open for negotiations at the same time. Bad Juju for the Admin, Good for us because now we had more power than they liked.
So, this was also our ‘summer time gathering’ for the Mat leaders for our formal training. We would spend two days and a night in training on what to do for MATS, including litigation, Level One and Two Grievances, putting up with shitty admin, going to court, the workers rights during interviews, and on and on. Class would be on hour or two each and we would take 3 to 5 class a day.
However our President of the time, Kathryn Lybarger, (the first UC union leader to be elected President of the California Labor Federation) decided that we needed to stand in solidarity with the members of our union (AFSCME 3299) and the Nurses Union first. So we fly on down to LA (it was So Cal’s turn to host us) and we get to our Hotel just long enough to get our bags into our rooms, and off we go on the buses.
Now we didn’t go directly to the area where were going to protest. We parked in the UCLA campus area, off-loaded so the buses could park elsewhere and then walked down about 4 or 5 blocks (in the summer heat, in L.A., on a Labor day weekend, what better for us Laborers) to area. On the way down we got lost of hand waving and fist shaking from the local shops and business’s.
The exact location, as I recall and the picture will bear me out, was Whileshire Ave and Westwood Blvd. In the pictures you can see the Armand Hammer (yes, the Baking Soda Company, interesting story about that) Museum in the background from where I am standing and looking toward. As you will also notice, there was a big pile of Policeman, standing in Riot Gear and they weren’t there to invite us to the Policeman's Ball. They were polite, and well mannered to us.
So there we are, First standing on the sidewalk and then the group of 20 people, including our President of the Union, walked to the middle of the Intersection and sat down. We all went through the Formal process’s. First the Police ‘advised to leave or be arrested’ for blocking the roadway, and this is where I have to remind people, THIS IS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, YES THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO THAT! Why, because this is how we get peoples attention, or least that is the way it is supposed to work. (more long stories on that, but the short is, Corporate Media figured out that if they didn’t give us air time, nobody else would know about this, and the last thing they wanted was more upset people.
The reason that the U.C. was already “sensitive about this subject” was because the C.E.O. of the hospital, along with the Regents of the U.C. system had just laid off ½ of the working staff medical attendants who were in place to watch over patients. The normal ration at the time was One nurse, ten patients, which was already a big stretch. Now they decided that was too expensive, read the C.E.O — who IIRC was also the C.E.O of the Sacto UC Hospital at the time — would have not been able to haul in her 1 million dollar plus bonus and Salary) so they cut the Nursing staff in half and declared it was an emergency (they were running out of funds and the rich folks didn’t want to pay to keep Family in a Alzheimer's clinic because that would eat into their multi-millionaire dollar incomes, donchaknow) IN many hospital run by this CEO, the Nurses were now working 18 hours a day, with no breaks or lunches because it was part of the contract that in emergencies — real ones, not the fake ones this CEO was manufacturing — and trying to watch 20 people or more. If a nurse was sick, they didn’t bring anyone else, and often in the middle of day, they would declare ‘an emergency’ and lay off as much as ¾ of the rest of the staff for one or two days “For Monetary considerations only”. This was after the courts decided that you could fire old people cause they cost too much to keep. Grinds teeth…. That was Bush courts.
So faced with that, of course two of the patients managed to slip out of the ward. One was an older man who was suffering from major dementia, and somehow, managed to not only walk of the Ward, but out of the hospital (and IIRC he was still in hospital garb), and into the hills nearby, and nobody noticed? The other person (IIRC, a middle aged female) some how managed to get out of the ward, get into a back stairwell, were she couldn’t get out of due to her mental status and so was stuck. Both died of exposure. The Second person we didn’t here about until later.
So, on with the protest. Our 20 plus volunteers parked it in the middle of the Street; The Police told to get our ass up and leave; We said no; They said, “OK’, if you don’t leave, we will arrest these 20 people in the middle of the street first and then you can leave (which is what we agreed upon). The police were polite, they took all the folks in the middle of the street, one by one, arrested them, cuffed them, put them on the police bus, and told the rest of us to get lost, which we did. That was the opening picture of the diary.
At the time, we had three news vans, two news copters, and ½ dozen or so news folks all on scene. One of local Stations, a Channel 4 Interviewed Ms Lybager and she told them our story. I can personally attest to this as I was standing behind her directly when she spoke (She had asked me and couple of others to have her back while she was speaking). We told them we were protesting the death of the man and it was directly related to the current layoffs at of Medical staff.
She noted that it was double the work output for the nurses, and against the standards set, for a Nurse to watch 20 people at the same time, over a T.V. system which were just recently installed, and they are not be able to move from the area. They were ‘directed to call someone’ but with all the cuts, and the summer bugs, and the over working, there wasn’t any staff to call. If the patient “disappeared” or was doing something that would lead to damage of stuff in the area, the orderlies ( ?. not sure if that is a correct term for the Medical staff that are below Nurses in the Hierarchy) were supposed to go in, if they weren’t being inundated with other patients themselves. I am not 100% sure of the numbers, I think that is what I recall, the Nurses were saddled with 20 patients on paper, closer to 40 in real life.
So here we are, blocking the main road that is a major outlet of Interstate 405, on the Friday of a Labor Day weekend at 5 PM. And the reason we had clogged it up so bad was the police had cordoned off two intersections on each side of the intersection we were blocking, and were redirecting traffic around us, clogging up the side streets as well. Why where they being this nice? 2 Reason, 1) Because the City also had run out of money and were putting the officers on duty, on a holiday weekend overtime, with no pay. So believe it or not, they were actually on our side, for once. 2) the reason they were on our side, is we agreed to be nice and all they had to was arrest 20 people, Which meant, they didn’t want to get their ass’s run over either. It’s really nice when you can be a huge group of a very Diverse crowd and still not be mistreated by the Police.
Once all the folks that had volunteered to be arrested had been processed and packed on the bus, the rest of us all disbursed as we agreed. But the traffic for miles around was snarled, and we caught of part of that on the way back home. Should have taken us like 20 minutes, took us nearly an hour and half to get back to the hotel. No supper, still waiting for rooms, our luggage was held in a ball room for us. Sounds about right, did enough Sci-fi cons to know this routine. Me, I nursed a bottle or two of water, and snack pack of meat, and nuts, and chips. Back pack.
So, let that Sink in (or think in :) ), L.A. post Rodney King, Summer Holiday, Three days off, clogged the Freeway like a massive bunch of Paper and Napkins in the middle of a major sewer system. Backed up to the third floor, or the third intersection if your picky. were 4 Score (42) and looking for more. :)
And for all that bother and pain, and I mean people were pissed driving home, Nice big SUV’s guzzling gas, like Kavanaugh and beer at frat party, in the heat and you want to PARTY (I remember before word before it is was a verb, said one comedian) we got less than 15 seconds on the news total, with one interview saying they talked to the President of the Union who was saying this was all about jobs and salaries. So we were painted as the bad guys who were just being greedy because we were only thinking of ourselves (some thinking it would be great to get more then $9/hr, and only have to work 40 hours a week, not 70 plus), while the poor CEO was being bullied (they interviewed her for like 30 minutes and they showed nearly all) What was she supposed to do, yada, yada, yada, it was all them bad peoples, who didn’t understand the pressure she was under and she needed that Million dollars she couldn’t feel like a real CEO because they are were all getting millions of dollars and she wasn’t. Stuff like that. Grrrrrr.
So when we say that the News Media are not our friends, without even counting FOX, believe me. All this effort, all the disruption which should have been in all the news (cause you know, Rich, Privileged people were inconvenienced, OMG) got a nothing mention, and blown off as the we were the bad Guy. And this only one story. The next protest was the at the UC Chancellors meeting, where our President got arrested again, she was making a name and you had to love that woman. She was kick ass, and did not take any flak back. I literally stood behind her and covered her back. Those were the days…. seems like a lifetime ago.