California IN BRIEF : BERKELEY : UC Building Is Unsafe, Union Says

A labor union representing University of California employees wants to have 300 office workers evacuated from University Hall on the Berkeley campus because, they say, it may collapse in an earthquake. The union also wants to stop the transfer of another 400 workers to the building, contending the structure may not be safe. “We believe the building is less safe now than it was before the (recent Bay area) quake,” said Judy Shattuck, president of a campus local of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. UC officials responded that engineers have examined University Hall and pronounced it as safe now as before the quake. But a report by the engineering firm of H.J. Degenkolb & Associates said: “The building has little dynamic resistance and will not even remotely meet present day earthquake requirements . . . there is a major hazard of collapse.”