Another Day, Another Bunch of UCI Arrests

A hat tip to Dissent the Blog for reminding me about this.

UC Irvine campus police arrested 17 protesters who clogged the fifth floor of
Aldrich Hall this morning. The students and labor organizers had several motives for the demonstration, but the main point seemed to be the break down in negotiations between the university and the UC system's janitorial union.

An Orange County Register report quotes Jorge Olvera, a groundskeeper
at UC San Diego and executive vice president of service for the local
chapter of AFSCME, which represents janitorial employees at the UC
system, saying the negotiations broke down because UCI management wanted to impose
citizenship checks on the workers.
]

Those arrestees better hope Chuck DeVore does not get them banned from campus!

Here's an email that was sent to the “UCI Community” this afternoon:
 

From: On Behalf Of Cathy Lawhon, University Communications
Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 1:30 PM
To: UCI Community:
Subject: Update on Aldrich Hall Activity

A group of students and labor organizers occupied the fifth floor of
Aldrich Hall at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 24, disrupting business and
presenting a wide-ranging list of demands.

Offices on the fifth floor were locked down and protestors were
informed that they should leave or they would be arrested. By noon,
police arrested 17 protestors inside Aldrich Hall who refused to leave
and cited them with unlawful assembly and refusal to disperse.
Students arrested will also be cited with violations of university
conduct policy.

Demonstrators outside the building blocked several exits impeding the
ability of those inside to leave. Police surrounded the perimeter of
the building and exits were cleared.

By afternoon, staff inside Aldrich Hall were evacuated to ensure their
safety.