Union picket line stops UC speaker

Contra Costa Time ^ | 5/10/6 | Matt Krupnick

[SmithL]

BERKELEY - Several thousand UC Berkeley graduates and their families flocked to the university's Hearst Greek Theatre for Wednesday's commencement convocation, only to have their graduation speaker leave campus rather than cross a picket line.

California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, declined to speak while 15 to 20 members of the union representing University of California service workers demonstrated outside the theater to protest low wages for UC custodians.

"The speaker doesn't cross picket lines," said Nunez spokesman Richard Stapler.

UC Chancellor Robert Birgeneau stepped up as the substitute speaker.

Leaders of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which staged the protest, did not return phone messages Wednesday afternoon.

A university spokeswoman said the protest was the first such disruption at a UC Berkeley convocation in recent memory.

"I think it's terrifically disappointing to the graduates and their families who had hoped to hear Speaker Nunez," said UC Berkeley spokeswoman Marie Felde.

About 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students from the campus are expected to receive degrees this month, Felde said.

[SmithL]

Lucky Graduates. I actually had to listen to the ignorant, racist, petty politician that showed up at my graduation.

[Last Dakotan]

Pretty good way to control the speaker.

[RichInOC]

My impression is that Fabian isn't exactly the most electrifying speaker in the world anyway, so maybe they dodged a bullet.

[operation clinton cleanup]

"I think it's terrifically disappointing to the graduates and their families who had hoped to hear Speaker Nunez," said UC Berkeley spokeswoman Marie Felde.

I bet less than 5% knew who Speaker Nunez is... let alone cared. What were the 20 union thugs protesting anyway?

[operation clinton cleanup]

California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, declined to speak while 15 to 20 members of the union representing University of California service workers demonstrated outside the theater to protest low wages for UC custodians.

Oh.. those guys.

[Zeppo]

Interestingly, this is apparently a real-world analog of a computer network "denial of service attack". It only works on certain types of Demo/Commies, though...

[singfreedom]

I bet this jackass won many votes on this day! Ten thousand attendees stood-up because he "doesn't cross picket lines"----plus all the people, neighbors and friends, these people will tell about his miserable un-performance, the numbers are mind boggling! It's not often that politicians can offend, en masse, 10,000 people with such little effort!

[I still care]

You know, I think we may be onto something here. If we can organize picket lines everytime a Democrat is supposed to speak, no one may ever have to hear one again...

[OLDCU]

OMG! What a great idea.

[CounterCounterCulture]

If we can organize picket lines everytime a Democrat is supposed to speak, no one may ever have to hear one again...

Splendid idea.

Greetings Mr. Liberal speaker, we are the United Brotherhood of Gum Scrapers From Drinking Fountains Union (a.k.a., the Gumbies), and we hope you will honor our picket line.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I can't remember the exact details, but the unions will at times give a Democrat special dispensation so they can cross a picket line without paying a political price for it. It's something like a Kennedy annulment.

[newzjunkey]

This was Berkeley so they'd have been happy to hear him. He probably had advance notice of this protest so he could get a win-win and become a hero to these Berkeley nutters.