CUE met with UC in Oakland on May 3-5, 2000. During the previous
bargaining session (
April 12-14, 2000) UC refused to honor agreements
reached on a series of articles negotiated since September 1999. On
April 18, 2000, CUE filed an unfair labor practice charge with the
state of California against the University for regressive, bad-faith
bargaining.
Following this, hundreds of CUE clerical workers and their UC union
allies around the state mobilized to protest UC's bad faith
bargaining and unfair wages. Some 2000
letters were sent to local
Chancellors, requesting that they intervene on our behalf with UC
President Atkinson, to get clericals a reasonable pay increase.
We met with UC again on May 3-5, 2000. At this bargaining session,
UC reversed its position on some of these articles and finally
endorsed agreements that we had reached several months ago. We
signed tentative agreements on Health and Safety, Holidays, as well
as Vacation and Sick Leave.
We rejected an interim wage proposal for 2% retroactive to October
1999 because CUE believes, that with good faith effort on UC's part,
it is possible in the next few bargaining sessions to reach a full
agreement on a
contract -- that includes a real wage increase and that starts to
compensate clericals for what we have lost. CUE has proposed 6%
retroactive to 10/99 and 5% for the following year with additional
steps for topped-out employees.
We are scheduled to meet with UC in Irvine on May 11-12, 2000 and
back in Oakland on May 18-19, 2000. We need your continued support
in order to maintain the progress at the bargaining table.
CUE's Bargaining Team:
- Christine Benoit (Riverside)
- Debbie Ceder (Santa Barbara)
- Mark Covington (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab)
- Jennifer Goodheart (Santa Cruz)
- LeAnn Herigstad (Davis)
- Alyce Herrera (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab)
- Lyn Kelly (Los Angeles)
- Robin Luczak (San Diego)
- Joanne Murray (Santa Barbara)
- Cynthia Norman (Irvine)
- Margy Wilkinson (Berkeley)
- Mark Blum (Chief Negotiator)
