Berkeley

UC Berkeley Agrees to Insource Subcontracted Custodians and Parking Attendants

Published

10 years ago

March 26, 2016

More than six weeks after a calling for a boycott on guest speakers at UC Berkeley, the university’s largest employee union, AFSCME 3299, and university have reached an agreement that will mean that 100 subcontracted custodians and parking attendants will be offered direct employment with the university within the next 30 days.

As a result, the speaker’s boycott has been lifted, and a planned April 1 picket at a planned Clinton Global Initiative University event on the Berkeley campus has been cancelled.

“This agreement is an important first step that also ends the exploitation of our colleagues at UC Berkeley, provides proven professionals to help the campus meet its permanent staffing needs, and reduces the drain on California’s taxpayer subsidized social safety net by pulling nearly a hundred families out of poverty,” said AFSCME 3299 President Kathryn Lybarger.

“We are deeply grateful to the many state and local elected officials, UC faculty, students, and civic leaders who stood up against our first class public university’s efforts to treat some of its workers as second class,” she said.

The agreement comes after more than a year of campaigning by workers employed by three different UC Berkeley contractors (Performance First, ABM, Laz Parking) facing widespread allegations of state and federal labor law violations, two recent State Labor Board complaints against the University of California over its use and treatment of subcontracted workers, and a recent study by the UC Berkeley Labor Center documenting the hardships faced by these types of workers across California.

The workers affected by the agreement already have more than 440 years of combined experience working at UC Berkeley, but because they’ve been employed by low wage contractors, have received only a fraction of the wages of directly employed UC Workers who do the same jobs.

Among those who honored the speaker’s boycott by cancelling or postponing planned engagements at UC Berkeley were Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, State Senators Carol Liu and Loni Hancock, Assemblymember Tony Thurmond, National Domestic Workers Alliance Director Ai-Jen Poo, GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis, NO on H8 Campaign Founder Adam Bouska, and human rights activist Angela Davis. The Berkeley City Council and Associated Students of UC Berkeley also passed resolutions in support of the boycott.

In acknowledging the accord at UC Berkeley, Local 3299 President Kathryn Lybarger also highlighted the fact that exploitation of subcontracted workers by firms with checkered legal histories continues at other campuses across the UC system.

“With an agreement to end the boycott and provide direct employment to the dedicated subcontracted workers at Berkeley, the University of California has finally acknowledged that its use of low wage contractors had nothing to do with meeting ‘temporary or seasonal’ staffing needs,” Lybarger added. “That’s why we will continue to fight UC’s reliance on private contractors for its permanent staffing needs across the UC system. Nothing could be more at odds with the public mission of our state’s third largest employer than awarding multi-million dollar contracts to companies that profit from growing the ranks of California’s Medicaid-reliant working poor.”

Last year, a measure to guarantee equal pay for subcontracted workers (SB 376, Lara) doing the same jobs as directly employed UC workers passed the legislature, but was vetoed by Governor Brown after a fierce, UC led lobbying campaign against the measure.

Lara has reintroduced the bill during the current legislative session (SB 959), adding language that delays implementation until after UC has fully implemented its new system-wide minimum wage in 2018, as well as prohibitions against awarding contracts to companies with a history of labor law violations. SB 959 is supported both by AFSCME Local 3299 and the UC Student Association (UCSA).

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Bay Area

UC Berkeley Named Top Public University in the U.S. and No. 7 in the World by ‘U.S. News’

Berkeley has been consistently awarded the distinction of the U.S.’s top public university since the Best Global Universities list was first published in 2014. “A strong position in the Best Global Universities rankings recognizes a school’s profound commitment to world-class research and cross-border academic excellence,” said LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News.

Published

4 days ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Photo by Keegan Houser/UC Berkeley.

The 2026 Best Global Universities rankings evaluated 2,250 research institutions from more than 100 countries

By Lila Thulin

U.S. News & World Report has ranked UC Berkeley No. 7 in its 2026 list of the best global universities, which assesses more than 2,250 research institutions worldwide.

Berkeley also claimed the honor of top public university in the U.S.

Released on Monday, the list evaluates universities from more than 100 countries on 13 metrics such as global and research reputation (as reported by academics and peers) and number of highly cited scholarly papers.

Berkeley has been consistently awarded the distinction of the U.S.’s top public university since the Best Global Universities list was first published in 2014.

“A strong position in the Best Global Universities rankings recognizes a school’s profound commitment to world-class research and cross-border academic excellence,” said LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News.

The rankings also assess a university’s strength in various subject areas; these assessments are separate from U.S. News’ 2026 Best Graduate Programs rankings released in April.

This year, Berkeley was named in the top three nationally in seven subject areas – environment/ecology, ecology, water resources, physics, computer science, chemistry, and engineering – and in the top five for a total of 17 subjects. Subject rankings are based heavily on scholarly publications and citations as well as reputation.

In September, U.S. News also released its 2026 Best Colleges list, in which Berkeley was also named the No. 1 public institution among American universities.

That honor joins other accolades judging campus to be the best public university in the country, such as those from Forbes, The Wall Street Journal and Times Higher Education.

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Arts and Culture

Farwest Region Deltas Celebrate Centennial With “September Breakfast” Honoring Vivian Osborne Marsh

The region was established in 1925 under the leadership of Vivian Osborne Marsh, who became its first Regional Director. Marsh was a pioneering scholar and civic leader, earning recognition as the first Black woman to receive both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in anthropology from UC Berkeley.

Published

10 months ago

September 14, 2025

Oakland Post

Farwest Regional Director, Kimberly Usher, Mayor Barbara Lee, US Representative Lateefah Simon, and Farwest Regional Representative, Radiya Ajibade. Photo courtesy of Farwest Regional Photographer Vicki P. Love.

By Antoinette Porter

Hundreds of members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and their guests gathered at the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union at the University of California, Berkeley, to mark the 100th anniversary of the sorority’s Farwest Region.

Marsh went on to serve as Delta Sigma Theta’s 7th National President, where she launched the sorority’s National Library Project to expand access to books in underserved Black communities in the South. During her presidency, the organization also became a prominent voice in the civil rights movement, lobbying Congress to pass anti-lynching legislation.

Bak in the Bay Area, Marsh devoted her career to advancing educational opportunities, mentoring young people, and strengthening community life. That commitment continues to shape the region, which supports initiatives in education, social justice, and economic development. Current projects include raising scholarship funds for students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, voter education campaigns, and health and wellness programs.

A century after its founding, the Farwest Region of Delta Sigma Theta remains active across California and other western states, carrying forward Marsh’s vision of service and advocacy.

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Arts and Culture

Cal Performances Presents Angélique Kidjo & Yo-Yo Ma in Sarabande Africaine at UC Berkeley Greek Theatre on Aug. 30

On Saturday, Aug. 30, the pair will debut the Bay Area premiere of Sarabande Africaine, joined by pianist Thierry Vaton, percussionist David Donatien, and special guest Sinkane. The program illuminates centuries of musical interplay between African traditions and Western classical forms, using the Baroque sarabande dance, and its African ancestor, the Congolese spirit dance Zarabanda, as a gateway to exploring the deep, interconnected roots of global music.

Published

10 months ago

August 25, 2025

Oakland Post

Angelique Kidjo and Yo-Yo Ma. Wikimedia photos.

By Carla Thomas

On Labor Day weekend two of the world’s most celebrated musicians and cultural ambassadors, Grammy Award–winning vocalist Angélique Kidjo and legendary cellist Yo-Yo Ma join forces for an evening of music, history, and cultural dialogue at UC Berkeley’s historic Hearst Greek Theatre.

Both Kidjo and Ma have built careers not only as great performers but as passionate advocates for cultural understanding. Sarabande Africaine is as much a conversation about shared heritage as it is a musical performance, blending genres, geographies, and histories.

“Every day there are moments when all of us can feel we are on the inside of something and also when we feel we are on the outside of something,” said Yo-Yo Ma. “To be able to understand both at the same time and oscillate between the two gives us a larger perspective on the world.”

“If your mind is open, and there is no fear, it’s easier to listen, and to question yourself,” said Kidjo.

The upcoming performance is presented within Cal Performances’ Illuminations: “Exile & Sanctuary” series for the 2025–26 season. The production explores exile as more than just physical displacement, but a disruption in identity and belonging, while sanctuary represents both refuge and the creative space where new connections and communities can take shape.

Cal Performances’ Illuminations bridges performances with UC Berkeley’s academic research, pairing the arts with conversations about urgent global issues.

Kidjo’s continued partnership with Cal Performances includes her 2021–22 artist-in-residence, premiering her music-theater work Yemandja, set in 19th-century West Africa during the transatlantic slave trade.

She also participated in the Bias in Our Algorithms and Society panel alongside campus leaders like Jennifer Chayes, and joined the Black Studies Collaboratory for a dialogue on music, diaspora, and the world.

She has since returned to Berkeley for multiple performances, most recently in 2024 at Zellerbach Hall.

Yo-Yo Ma’s history with Cal Performances spans decades, beginning in 1997. One notable project includes the 2018 performance of Bach’s complete cello suites at the Greek Theatre, a testament to his devotion to creating “transformative concert experiences in iconic spaces.”

For tickets and more information, visit calperformances.org.