The Undergraduate Workers Union has made history as the first independent union for undergraduate students. If it does not make some fundamental changes, however, it will soon become history.

The UWU raised several serious allegations against Cal Dining management, and campus administration should not brush them aside by telling union members to take up concerns with their supervisors. Instead, the accusations warrant a direct investigation. Allegations of workplace harassment, wage theft and inadequate training that leads to injury can easily give way to lawsuits.

UC Berkeley must also review policies that have cheated student-workers out of fair employment conditions.

Currently, the UC system has a minimum wage of $14 per hour — higher than the city of Berkeley’s minimum wage of $12.53 an hour. But the $14 figure applies only to employees who work more than 20 hours a week. All students who are part of work-study programs are excluded, as the campus does not permit them to work more than 20 hours each week.

The UWU has demanded wages of $17 to $19 an hour, or a 35 to 51 percent salary increase — unlikely, given the dire financial straits of the campus. Instead, the UWU should demand that the campus either allow students in work-study programs to work more than 20 hours a week or give all workers the same treatment and wages.

Cal Dining has also been accused of ending workers’ shifts right before the four-hour mark, after which they are entitled to compensated breaks under California law. The campus must look into this allegation immediately to avoid potential complicity in worker exploitation.

While the UWU has successfully raised awareness around these issues, it has not gotten its desired response from Cal Dining or the campus administration. If the union hopes to achieve some of if its aims, then it must make serious changes to its organization and demands.

At present, the UWU — predominantly composed of Cal Dining workers — is too small and too narrow in its focus to make such ultimatums. Demanding rollbacks of tuition increases and the Cancel For Non-Payment policy and then allowing the campus only 48 hours to respond is unreasonable. Instead, the union should first focus on Cal Dining-related problems.

The UWU’s debut event, a walkout during lunch hours at Crossroads, included approximately 30 to 40 of the 450 students who work for Cal Dining. While the validity of a movement should not be judged based on numbers, the union’s concerns unfortunately lose some credibility and impact if it cannot amass a wider support base.

An independent, student-run union is a great accomplishment in the face of campus mismanagement and will hopefully bring light to alleged student-worker mistreatment. But if the UWU wants to strengthen its platforms, it must narrow them down and gauge the input of more Cal Dining workers.

Editorials represent the majority opinion of the Editorial Board as written by the opinion editor.