Spartans meet A.S. candidates
By Anahi Herrera
Associated Students
(A.S.) election season has arrived at San José State and the candidates for the new Associated Students Board of Directors are making themselves known through a Meet the Candidates event.
A.S. is a non-profit organization at SJSU that advocates for student voices, offers services and hosts events for the student body, according to the Associated Students webpage.
Geoffrey Agustin, a thirdyear computer engineering student and the A.S candidate for vice president, shared why he believes it’s important to know who's running for these positions.
“(Candidates) will be representing you, at the highest levels, not just within San José State but they go to the CSU level and also talk to administrators and people in Washington, D.C. and in Sacramento,” Agustin said.
The event was held on Tuesday at the Student Union Meeting Room 4, events like candidate videos and candidate debates will be released later in the month, according to the same
A.S webpage.
Rys Gonzalez, an accounting student, says there is a process for online voting for students who are unable to go to the voting booths.
“It will be a QR code that is already on the Students’ Elections Commission page,” Gonzalez said. “The voting isn't open just yet but right now you can see the events, all the candidates, their endorsements. Once voting begins students can click on the QR code at the very
top of our website and it will be like a form.”
Voting is set to commence on April 17 at 7 p.m. and concludes on April 23 at 11:59 p.m., according to the 2025 Voter Information Guide.
Voting booths will be located in front of Student Wellness Center and housing quad from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., but online voting will also be available, according to the same guide.
Currently, Agustin serves as A.S Director of
Communication, where he was able to understand the underlying responsibility for all roles part of A.S board of Directors.
“I’ve gained a thorough understanding of bylaws, the budget policies and the procedure of meetings and how to share them. So I feel like those skills could be directly translated to this role,” Agustin said.
Part of Agustin’s goal if elected as A.S vice president is implementing a mentorship
program to increase student involvement. Currently, there are around 84% of students living off campus, according to a U.S. News webpage.
“We can allow the board of directors to not only be student representatives and leaders, but mentor other individuals that are developer leaders,” Agustin said.
A big goal of A.S is to ensure students feel supported and represented and overall enhance SJSU student’s education, according to an
A.S. Mission Statement.
Laura Charles, a firstyear public health student running for A.S Director of Internal Affairs says she wants to implement a system for students to encourage communication about the happenings on campus.
“I want to have more transparent communication between students and university officials,” Charles, “Maybe having a sort of hotline could be helpful. I don’t want students to be in a position where they are scared to say something and don’t share their concerns”.
During the event, students were encouraged to mingle and interact with candidates.
Yhanira Medina, a fourthyear biomedical engineering student, attended the event to be informed.
“I really decided to come out to just get to know the candidates and see what they stand for and see if it aligns with what they have mentioned online,” Medina said.
Editor’s note: A longer verison of this article is available on SJSUNews.com
Medical workers strike on unfair bargaining
By Bryan Reos STAFF WRITER
Hundreds of clinical lab scientists, microbiologists, medical laboratory technicians and other workers at Santa Clara County hospitals and public health labs planned an unfair labor practice strike in response to the county’s failure to negotiate in good faith.
The strikes took place on Monday, March 24 to Wednesday, March 26 from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and O’Connor Hospital, 10 minutes away from SJSU campus, according to the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers webpage.
Daniel Biocini, a clinical lab scientist manager of phlebotomy and accessioning
at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, said that contract talks with the county have left them feeling underappreciated.
“Throughout the COVID (19) pandemic, we kept coming to work to take care of our patients, even when it meant risking our own safety and the safety of our families,” Biocini said. “This is the first contract we’ve negotiated since the start of the pandemic and instead of making sure we’re able to keep living in our area and coming to work, county negotiators want to strip us of our basic rights.”
Healthcare workers have since been working under the same contract and recently started negotiations with the county that have gone nowhere resulting in disagreements between both parties.
Correction
On Tuesday, April 8, the Spartan Daily published a story titled, “ ‘Hands Off!’ protest erupts in SJ,” in which both President Donald J. Trump and District 4 Supervisor Susan Ellenberg’s names were misspelled.
In the same issue, the Spartan Daily published a story titled, “Spartans brings attention to awareness month,” where notable people like Rosa Parks and other women of color came together to fight against gender-based violence.
The Spartan Daily regrets this error.
Jaspal Sandhu, a clinical lab scientist at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and a member of the negotiating team, said that Santa Clara County has been negotiating in bad faith and stands with Engineers and Scientists of California (ESC), according to the same advisory.
“Our members have given us the mandate to insist on good faith bargaining so we can continue to deliver quality patient care and reject the county’s effort to forcibly waive our rights,” Sandhu said. “We remain committed to working towards reaching a fair agreement but will strike if necessary to try to put an end to the County’s bad faith.”
The union has said that the Santa Clara County has been negotiating in bad faith since contract talks began last year in July by failing to explain certain proposals that would waive workers rights. These would include the right to negotiate working conditions in the future and to collectively take action to improve patient care, according to the same source.
Joana Santos, a clinical laboratory scientist at St. Louise Regional Hospital, said that the proposals from the country can put patients' lives at risk.
“Our patients deserve better, for they trust us with our health,” Santos said. “We need to continue their trust.”
Santa Clara County offered the ESC a wage increase of nearly 16% over a four year period of the contract,
according to a press statement.
James R. Williams, Santa Clara County executive and chief operating officer, said he wants to resolve the contract negotiations and ensure that all lab services provided are still active during the strikes, according to the same press statement.
“Our highest priority is making sure that all critical lab work can proceed so that our patients who rely on our services receive the compassionate and critical health care that they need,” Williams said. “Our ESC-represented staff are committed public servants and the county is committed to reaching a fair and sustainable contract for both sides, so that
together we can provide the highest quality health care to our community.”
ESC workers unanimously voted at the end of February to authorize an Unfair Labor Practice strike had nearly 90% of eligible workers participate in the vote and 100% of participants voting to strike, according to the press statement.
Marianne Kaletzky, the communication specialist at ESC, said that everyone was engaged and wanted to fight back against the bad faith negotiations going on between the Santa Clara County and ESC union members.
“Yeah union members were really mobilized, they were really engaged,” Kaletzky
said. “Actually those three days out on the picket line, we saw the vast majority of the members out there every single day.”
The ESC Union has gotten support from many community members and union groups.
“We're also fortunate to have a lot of support from the community,” Kaletzky said. “The nurses union, a lot of their unions, the Seafarers International Union that also works in the hospital and community allies to support us as well, they all came out.
