Unions celebrate May Day with barbecue

Kris Gainey/Daily Forty-Niner  California State Employees Association member Jackie Jempson, right,  flips burgers at Monday's barbecue in front of the Speaker's Platform on Upper Campus while a fellow association member looks on.

Barbecue smoke filled the air around the Speakers' Platform on Upper Campus Monday, as the Labor Council kicked off its fourth annual May Day celebration.  

About 300 people gathered to sample the food, visit the union booths and listen to speakers discuss what they consider to be unfair labor practices.  

"We're doing this to try to get the six unions at Cal State Long Beach together," said Anne Staskewizz, secretary treasurer of the California State Employees Association, a union representing state workers. "Also, we're trying to make students aware of the international worker's day."  

The first of May is celebrated as labor day in every other country but the United States, Staskewizz said. The day originated in the United States, but was moved to September during the Red Scare, or McCarthyism, of the 1950s.  

"It's so impractical to have it in September," said Hamdi Bilici, finance professor and chapter president of the California Faculty Association, which represents Cal State faculty. "It should be moved back to May, like in the rest of the world."  

The unions are trying to move more together to have more clout in bargaining, Staskewizz said.  

"It's so easy for the university to play divide and conquer on us," Staskewizz said. "Since we're already divided, it's really easy for them."  

Charles Goetzl, president of the Academic Professionals of California, said the day is used to celebrate past accomplishments of workers and promote solidarity.  

Only four of the university's six unions showed up for the event, Stastewizz said. "We're having a bit of trouble getting the police unions to show up," she said.