CUE bargainers met with UC in Berkeley & Oakland on November 17-19, 1999. There was a lot of discussion but not much progress at this session.
WAGES
The CUE team presented our three-year wage proposal again. The CUE proposal highlights the following:
A) Restoration of Lost Real Wages - clerical employees' wages have fallen more than 7% behind inflation since our wages were slashed in 1993. CUE is simply demanding that clerical wages be restored to a level that allows us to place the same food on our families' tables as we could in 1993. We are proposing to restore these lost wages over a three-year period.
B) Longevity Pay - CUE proposes to offer three more steps at the top of each range, and to offer longevity pay each five years to long-term employees. Under the current pay structure, long-term employees are topped-out and remain permanently ineligible for any merit increases at all. It is just wrong to punish, rather than reward, employees for long service to the University.
C) Elimination of Incentive Awards - CUE proposes to eliminate arbitrary and unfair administration of incentive awards by reallocating the award monies into fair, across-the-board, base-building compensation to all clerical employees.
UC previously told us the University has the money to finance these changes, but that increasing wages for clericals is not a priority for them. This remains the University's position.
GRIEVANCE AND ARBITRATION
CUE seeks to resolve grievances fairly and quickly through constructive dialogue and voluntary resolution at the lowest possible level. By contrast, UC usually avoids resolving the problem at the departmental level and rushes grievances forward toward the final stage -- binding arbitration. CUE presented revised proposals to provide increased prospects for quick, fair, and voluntary resolution of employee grievances and to strengthen guarantees of due process for clericals. UC representatives made no significant response.
NON-DISCRIMINATION
CUE presented our proposal on non-discrimination again. CUE seeks contract language that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of age, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual preference, political or religious beliefs, or any other inappropriate category. Such
discrimination is repugnant to clerical employees, and CUE seeks to remedy discrimination at the University quickly and inexpensively through the grievance and arbitration procedures of our contract. Once again UC expressed the opinion that it would rather force employees to look to lawsuits or outside government agencies to resolve discrimination problems. UC representatives refused to acknowledge the significance of the fact that a disproportionate number of grievances are filed by older women of color.
CUE presented UC representatives with a long list of college and university contracts that give professors access to internal grievance and arbitration procedures to resolve issues of discrimination.
THE CUE TEAM WAS APPALLED TO HEAR UC REPRESENTATIVES RESPOND THAT CLERICAL EMPLOYEES MAY NOT DESERVE THE SAME PROTECTIONS AGAINST DISCRIMINATION THAT ARE ROUTINELY OFFERED TO FACULTY MEMBERS!
CUE and UC bargains on November 30 - December 2, 1999, at UC Irvine and at the Office of the President in Oakland December 6-10, 1999.
We urgently need your fullest support for bargaining these critical issues. UC must be convinced that fair treatment and decent pay for clericals need to be a priority at this University.
CUE's Bargaining Team:
- Kris Amaral (San Francisco)
- Christine Benoit (Riverside)
- Debbie Ceder (Santa Barbara)
- Jennifer Goodheart (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)
