SUMMARY: While we have made significant progress in bargaining on a
number of non-economic issues, UC remains unwilling to make any
movement on one of the most important remaining issues: wages. CUE
presented a new proposal to raise clerical wages by 6% for 1999-2000,
and 5% for 2000-2001. While CUE's proposal was an attempt to narrow
the gap between the two positions, the University seems to be moving
farther away from a possible wage settlement.
CUE met with UC in Oakland on February 9-11, 2000 to continue discussions.
We continued to make progress toward agreement on a number of
non-economic issues; however, we have not finalized agreement on any
of them. These include Hours of Work, Holidays, Positions,
Performance Evaluations, Policies, and Work Rules. However, UC's
continued unwillingness to make any movement on Wages continues to be
a major impediment to settlement.
CUE presented a new proposal which reduces the difference between the
cost of UC's last proposal and CUE's to within 1.2% (approximately
$5.3 million) for 1999-2000 and 1.5% (approximately $7 million) for
2000-2001. For 18,000 clerical workers this would cost UC a scant
0.65% of its current $1.9 billion unrestricted surplus. This is a
very small price for UC to join with CUE in beginning to address the
deterioration of living standards that clericals have suffered over
the last decade. Analysis of the most recent Bureau of Labor
Statistics data reveals that clericals have lost 9.3% of real wages
since 1992.
Instead of proposing to close the small gap in response to CUE's new
proposal, UC again offered 2% for 1999-2000 and proposed no money in
the second contract year. Instead UC proposed to bargain at every
hospital, campus, and laboratory for market equity studies with no
financial commitments to make adjustments to clerical salaries. We
had hoped for progress this session on wages, yet UC has moved
farther away, rather than closer, to a wage settlement that could
begin to restore the lost living standards of clericals.
We will post CUE's current wage proposal on our web page soon
(
http://www.cueunion.org/).
The next bargaining date has not yet been set. We will keep you informed.
CUE's Bargaining Team:
- Christine Benoit (Riverside)
- Debbie Ceder (Santa Barbara)
- Mark Covington (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab)
- Jennifer Goodheart (Santa Cruz)
- Alyce Herrera (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab)
- Lyn Kelly (Los Angeles)
- Robin Luczak (San Diego)
- Linda Moser (Davis)
- Joanne Murray (Santa Barbara)
- Cynthia Norman (Irvine)
- Margy Wilkinson (Berkeley)
- Mark Blum (Chief Negotiator)
