A couple days ago I saw in article in the aggie that said there was going to be a second food worker protest today. A while ago some Sodexho food workers held a protest to demand that their contracted jobs be changed into UCD jobs. Quite a few of them were arrested after they sat in the middle of an intersection.

After class Ross and I sat at the coffeehouse and ate lunch while waiting to see what would happen in today's protest. When we noticed a large number of police officers on foot, in motorcycles, and in cars, Ross got scared and ran away from the protest.

About an hour after the newspaper said the protest would begin, some leaders turned on megaphones and started leading the mob in chants. From the coffeehouse, they walked across the quad, past Shields library, and to the Mrak hall administration building.

Once they were outside the building, some people on the inside opened the windows, started clapping, and hung some large signs from the building... I'm not sure how that happened. Maybe the protesters got into the building somehow?... I wouldn't be surprised if some UC Davis officials had a part in it. Last time there were lecturers among the people arrested.

After taking a lot of photographs from as many angles as I could, I left the scene. On the way to Kemper hall, I stopped and took some photographs of the police officers that were standing in the shade, watching the protest unfold.

From what I know, I think the protests have to do with the fact that the University has contracted Sodexho workers doing food service work. The workers might be paid low wages and not have the benefits that university employees enjoy.

However, I don't think the University should have any responsibility to provide for what the workers are demanding... The workers have a specific job, and there's no reason to give them official university jobs simply because they work here at the university... Since they're contracted from Sodexho, wouldn't it make sense to protest with Sodexho instead?

While Ross and I were eating at the tables outside the coffeehouse, one of the leaders visited every table and informed all of us about the protest that was about to happen. She proceeded to explain all the tragic injustices that the food service workers were subject to, and even tossed in some random swear words into her appeal. What she wanted us to believe was that the workers were being paid "poverty wages" and that they were being treated "like ****".

She also mentioned that after the last protest, the chancellor hadn't responded to them at all. However, the California Aggie paper reported on the front page that when the Chancellor was having his "brown bag" chat with students, protesters went in and started chanting, completely disrupting the scheduled meeting and not giving the Chancellor any chance to address issues. He was planning to speak specifically about the protest, but they wouldn't give him a chance to. Funny, huh?

What's the difference between workers who are hired at places on campus such as taco bell and carls jr, and the sodexho workers?... If they argue that the workers at the fast food places have higher wages and more benefits, then the obvious thing to do would be to protest against Sodexho for wage and benefit increases right? Is there something I'm not aware of?

This summer, joseph, anna, and I are all going to get our wisdom teeth taken out. Joseph got his taken out today. He was given local anesthesia, and wasn't given any choices. From local, sedation, and full knockout, I chose full knockout for mine.

Joseph is pretty manly. He would be even manlier if he had a choice and chose local. Haha.