UC Threatens Food Safety with the Closure of the California Animal Health & Food Safety Lab in Fresno
The University of California, Davis plans to close its California Animal Health & Food Safety (CAHFS) lab in Fresno by July 19th. The Fresno lab’s work is critical to the health of Californians. It tests and processes poultry and livestock samples for a range of diseases that can be transferred from animals to humans, including Brucellosis, Salmonella, Newcastle, Avian Flu and others. The Fresno Lab tests well over 1.4 million samples a year.
“By closing this lab without a viable plan for where the tests will be done in the future, UC has placed food safety at serious risk and may have violated state law,” said Debbie Neely, a diagnostician who has worked at the lab for 29 years. The State Food and Agriculture Code mandates that UC maintain a sufficient number of labs to fulfill its diagnostic mission.
CAHFS plans to move some of the testing to its other 4 labs and, according to its website, “outsource” the rest. But many in the industry and lab staff question the viability and effectiveness of this plan, and are concerned about industry disruption and public health.
A USDA Market Cattle Investigator was in complete shock at hearing about the Fresno lab closure. He said his office was told that the Brucellosis Market Cattle Surveillance Program would be cut by 90%. However, he does not believe that UC can feasibly make the cut and says that neither the San Bernardino nor Davis labs could handle such large amounts of work. The Fresno lab often processes over 3000 slaughter samples per day. (See fact sheet for more detailed testing data). No dairy or beef cattle will be able to enter or leave the state if the Brucellosis testing program is compromised.
Outsourcing to other states is being suggested as a viable option for much of the work now being done by CAHFS Fresno. Outsourcing potentially jeopardizes UC's ability to maintain sample integrity, and reliability of results. Also, turn around time will be much slower if a sample is shipped out of state. This is a major industry concern as often times the Fresno lab will receive a “stat” sample for a diagnosis of infectious disease, where a truck is loaded with animals and can’t be moved until it receives test results.
In the late 1970s, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which managed the labs at that time, tried to close the lab in Turlock. Assemblymember John E. Thurman, Jr. successfully fought to keep the lab open, and created a task force to improve the system. At that time, the lab system had fallen victim to such severe budget cuts that concerns were raised about the lab’s effectiveness. Legislators ultimately passed legislation that created CAHFS and gave the University of California management rights.
During legislative hearings at that time, concern was expressed that the university’s research focus would overshadow the state lab’s mission of diagnostic service to the agricultural community. “It is time for the Legislature to reevaluate the possibility that UC’s research focus has overshadowed CAHFS diagnostic service. The agricultural community is no longer the primary focus of the labs,” said Sue McCormick, Davis President, University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE)
To illustrate, as of the 2007 Annual Report there were 28 faculty members and six residents assigned to the five labs. This indicates that education and research have become a high and very costly priority. At the Fresno lab there were four faculty members and one resident at an annual salary of over $400,000. At the closure of the lab two faculty members will relocate to Tulare and one to Davis. No staff employees are being relocated. It is quite obvious that the University considers keeping faculty much more important than keeping the lab open for testing for the agriculture community, ensuring food safety for the people of California.
The laid off staff have been told that they must apply for rehire at other CAHFS labs. The Tulare lab has already indicated to staff that there will be five positions opening up at that location and if any of the laid off staff wants a position, they will have to apply. This unfair treatment is damaging to the morale of all staff employees working at CAHFS. Staff should have recall rights at all 4 remaining CAHFS labs.
“There needs to be an investigation and audit of UC's management of the CAHFS labs by the Legislature. There is no reason to close the Fresno lab,” said Sue McCormick.
UC Davis manages the Fresno lab and the other four labs (Davis, Tulare, Turlock and San Bernardino) in the CAHFS system. University Professional and Technical Employees, CWA 9119, represents 12,000 researchers, technical employees, and health care professionals system wide at UC, including 3 Lab Assistants and 13 Staff Research Associates at the Fresno lab.
WHO WE ARE
University Professional and Technical Employees, CWA 9119, is the union of technical and professional employees at the University of California. There are more than 11,000 UC employees covered by UPTE contracts.
UPTE was founded in 1990 by a group of employees who believed that UC workers would benefit by having a union to safeguard and expand our rights in the workplace. There are UPTE locals at all campuses and medical centers of the University of California. In 1993, UPTE members voted to affiliate with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), a 700,000 member union in the AFL-CIO, in order to better organize and represent UC workers.
UPTE is a democratic, member-run union made up entirely of UC employees. Decisions are made by UPTE members and their elected representatives. Our success is due to the high level of activism among our members. We invite you to join us.
BOARD MEETING DATE & TIME
(2nd Tuesday of every month)
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 [6:15pm]
432 D Street Davis, CA
Conference Room behind the Office
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