DNC Pulling 2020 Debate from UCLA Over Union Boycott of the University
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The Democratic National Committee has joined a labor union boycott against the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and will no longer be holding the 6th Democratic presidential debate at the university in December.
“In response to concerns raised by the local organized labor community in Los Angeles, we have asked our media partners to seek an alternative site for the December debate,” announced DNC senior adviser Mary Beth Cahill in a statement, Wednesday, after University of California union AFSCME 3299 called on Democratic candidates to join the boycott.
AFSCME 3299 executive director Liz Perlman stated, “What we’re doing is asking for the candidates who are coming to UCLA’s campus to honor the three-year boycott that we’ve had in place for any speaker attending any event on any of the university’s campuses to stand in solidarity with the workers and essentially to not lend their name and credibility to the university that’s treating workers like this.”
After announcing that UCLA would be the location of December’s debate on October 29th, the university issued an update on Wednesday, blaming the DNC’s withdrawal on “renewed and unanticipated objections from organized labor.”
“With regret, we have agreed to step aside as the site of the debate rather than become a potential distraction during this vitally important time in our country’s history,” UCLA proclaimed.
The union boycott was started following allegations that the university had been illegally outsourcing jobs.
“By secretly working to expand outsourcing of service and patient care jobs, the University of California is unilaterally imposing lower wages, more inequality, and more risk of employer abuse against its most vulnerable workers—mostly women and people of color,” declared AFSCME 3299’s Monica De Leon last week. “This is not just morally bankrupt, unfair and unsafe for the students and patients who depend on the work we do—it is illegal. And we will not rest until this lawlessness stops.”
