USC housing workers are threatening to strike next week in response to what they called illegal bargaining practices on the part of the university.
Roughly 30 workers — including maintenance staff, technicians, painters and customer service representatives — say they plan to walk off the job.
“Our negotiations have been severely hurt by USC managers’ disrespect, retaliation, and bad-faith bargaining,” said Angel Moreno, a maintenance worker, in a press release. “We deserve much better.”
The housing workers accused the university of illegally ending its typical practice of awarding annual, merit-based raises as a retaliation tactic during negotiations.
“We are still actively engaged in negotiations over wages,” USC Housing wrote in a statement. “We have been and will continue to bargain in good faith.”
USC Housing added that it has a “contingency plan in place for Aug. 21″ and that, in the event of a strike, it expects “minimal impact to operations and a smooth move-in day.”
The university’s custodians are represented by a separate union that does not plan to strike, and the workers who man service kiosks in building lobbies are not represented by the union, either.
The housing workers are unionized under the banner of the Service Employees International Union, which also represents USC’s shuttle drivers.
In May, those drivers threatened to strike during the university’s commencement ceremony — then aborted after reaching an eleventh-hour agreement with USC.
Six months prior, unionized graduate students also threatened to strike before reaching a tentative agreement just before fall semester finals.
“USC must get serious at the bargaining table soon,” Moreno said in the press release. “If not, we’re ready to strike.”