Robert F. Kennedy Jr. boycotts UC Berkeley over labor dispute

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_11151522?source=most_emailed

Kristin Bender
Oakland Tribune
Posted: 12/05/2008 08:26:23 PM PST
Updated: 12/05/2008 10:54:14 PM PST

BERKELEY — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. spoke at an annual event honoring a late leader of the Free Speech Movement on Thursday night, but the event was held off campus because the environmental activist boycotted UC Berkeley in support of campus service workers' two-year labor battle with the university.

The Mario Savio Memorial Lecture and Young Activist Award honor Savio, a leader of the 1964 Free Speech Movement, a civil rights worker, a UC Berkeley student and later a teacher at Sonoma State University. He died in 1996 at age 53.

Kennedy, son of Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, appeared at the Berkeley Community Theatre instead of on the UC Berkeley campus as originally scheduled because he was supporting the 8,500 UC service workers who have been in contract negotiations for two years, according to William Schlitz, political and communications director for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299.

"We are saddened and frustrated that, for the first time in its 12-year history, the Mario Savio Memorial Lecture cannot be held on the Berkeley campus because of the university administration's failure to reach a fair and just agreement with its lowest paid workers," lecture organizer Lynne Hollander Savio said. "Our speaker, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has refused to speak on campus until UC resolves this contract dispute over poverty-level wages for its service workers."

"Service workers are an important part of the UC community and we've been working very hard to reach a contract agreement for them with the union," said UC spokesman Brad Hayward, "We have enhanced our wage offers several times to reach an agreement, and we hope one can be achieved in the near future."

Over the past few years, actor Danny Glover, Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, former Speaker of the California Assembly Fabian Núñez and many others also have boycotted the campus because of the labor issue.

FULL story at link.