Labor union protests Adobe construction project
Raquel GuerreroManaging Editor, The VOICE
Protesters interrupted the annual Compass Safe Sex Fair at the GCC Mall area on Wednesday April 8.
Photo by Lydia Hernandez/ Photographer
Members of the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters protested outside the construction site of the new Business and International Students building.
However, they were not protesting against homosexuality or the participation of Planned Parenthood in the fair.
The protesters were from a workers union.
Luis Medina was representing Local #1506 protesters of the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, also known as the Carpenters Union.
According to Medina the union has a "labor dispute against adobe drywall for their failure to pay area standard wages and conditions on their projects."
In short, Director of Institutional Advancement Patricia Vogel stated that the college was aware of the protest and that the union went through all the formal process with the civil disobedience unit at the Glendale Police Department.
"Glendale community college is an open campus so we encourage our entire community to come on to campus as long as protesters are not disrupting instruction. In the very beginning of this protest they were rather loud, we actually had people taking their test in Testing and Disabilities department so we had to ask them to bring their volume down and that was a little bit of negotiation at that point."
Student Jordan Jelinek said, "I thought at first that they were trying to raise tuition, so that we could pay them, and I was a little upset by them, but when I talked to them they reacted kindly and informed me clearly of what's going on. They just want a raise."
On the other hand, student Shane Arcadia would call the protesters rats after they chanted "who's the rat, Adobe is the rat." Arcadia thinks that what the protesters are doing is wrong because they are giving Adobe a bad name.
"Some people are getting laid off left and right and these people are complaining where they should be thankful they have a job," stated Arcadia.
Please send comments to rguerrero@gccvoice.com
