In response to the news that Homeland Security Secretary and former Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano will become the new President of the University of California system, Kathryn Lybarger, President of the university's largest union--AFSCME 3299--has issued the following statement:
"While UC staff, students and patients were largely excluded from the secretive process that led to Secretary Janet Napolitano's appointment, we appreciate her years of public service and congratulate her on becoming the next President of the University of California. Secretary Napolitano's tenure at UC begins at a time of skyrocketing student tuition, degraded patient care quality, increased privatization of public university resources, unprecedented debt, unrivaled executive excess, and declining taxpayer trust in top University leadership. While this will be the unfortunate legacy of her predecessor, it is our hope that Secretary Napolitano will work to arrest the UC's continuing modesty problem, and restore the spirit of cooperation and respect that's needed to meet its core public research, academic and health delivery missions in the years to come. If she does, she can be assured that she will find a willing partner in AFSCME 3299."
(AFSCME 3299 represents more than 22,000 Service and Patient Care Technical Workers at the University of California's 10 campuses and five medical centers. Read our UC Patient Care Whistleblower Report at www.afscme3299.org/putpatientsfirst, or visit us online at www.afscme3299.org.)
