CUE began bargaining our first contract with UC on August 4 & 5, 1998. The majority of our discussion focused on ground rules which govern conduct by both parties during bargaining. CUE made significant gains over the old AFSCME ground rules, which UC wanted to follow. We made the point that it was a new union, a new day, and new grounds rules were in order. The standards CUE set were significant improvements over those negotiated by other unions at UC, with much broader rights to report publicly on bargaining progress. It was agreed that whenever feasible, bargaining would take place on UC campuses around the state, saving taxpayer money and union dues. Both CUE and UC made the commitment that meetings would not be canceled at the last minute or for frivolous reasons.
CUE notified UC of our members' decision not to accept the AFSCME contract while negotiating a new CUE contract. Meanwhile, UC is required to maintain the status quo for most terms and conditions of employment until a new contract is negotiated.
Shocking Proposal from UC
At UC there is a catastrophic leave program which allows employees to donate vacation time to seriously ill co-workers. On some UC campuses, management's position has been that members of the clerical unit represented by CUE may not participate in this program. CUE has become aware of two clericals who are in dire need of assistance and several
people willing to donate leave time to them. CUE wanted to make sure these two employees could participate in the program without delay while broader application of the program was negotiated. However UC would not allow their participation, and insisted that an overall policy be negotiated first. In order to move the matter forward quickly, CUE agreed to accept the same leave program provision that other employees enjoy. But our hopes for speedy resolution were dashed when UC then declared that there could be no catastrophic leave agreement unless CUE also agreed that UC would be allowed to implement any and all parking fee increases without bargaining with us.
The catastrophic leave program that CUE was willing to agree to is one that is currently offered to most UC staff and to some clericals on some campuses and does not cost the University any money. UC, it seems, is more interested in maintaining its ability to increase parking fees than it is in the welfare of sick employees. CUE firmly rejected UC's cynical attempt to make financial gains at the expense of human lives, and in the face of UC's stubbornness on this point, we are developing alternate ways to help our co-workers through this difficult time.
UC met CUE's good will with surprising callousness. In spite of this, significant progress was made in this first bargaining session -- it would not have been possible without the unified support of CUE members. We will need to continue to build our strength as we face future challenges. Our next bargaining session is scheduled for September 24 & 25, 1998 at the Office of the President in Oakland. We expect that in October and November sessions will be held at other campuses.
According to our bargaining ground rules, all clericals are entitled to attend bargaining sessions. Please let us know if you would like to attend.
CUE's Bargaining Team:
- Kris Amaral (San Francisco)
- Christine Benoit (Riverside)
- Debbie Ceder (Santa Barbara)
- Mary Harrington (Santa Cruz)
- Lyn Kelly (Los Angeles)
- Robin Luczak (San Diego)
- Linda Moser (Davis)
- Joanne Murray (Santa Barbara)
- Cynthia Norman (Irvine)
- John Randolph (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab)
- Margy Wilkinson (Berkeley)
- Mark Blum (Chief Negotiator)
