Bargaining Update #21: June 5-7, 2002
CUE and UC continued negotiations in Oakland, June 5-7, 2002. Just before
this bargaining session, UCSD bargainer Jody Galluzzi had been threatened
with unwarranted and totally inappropriate discipline on her job. The CUE bargaining
team feels very strongly that Jody is under attack as a result of being a CUE
bargainer and let UC know that these actions are
totally unacceptable. UC's chief negotiator, Sharon Hayden, told CUE
she was taking the matter very seriously and would investigate our concerns.
In this session we were able to reach tentative agreement on five articles.
The first was Nondiscrimination, which remains the same as in the current
expired contract. We also signed three side letters (an agreement between the union and UC that clarifies or slightly modifies language in the contract). The first side letter
was an agreement to once again allow employees to choose between being paid
for overtime or accruing compensatory time. We also signed side
letters making Work Load an item to be discussed at Labor Management
meetings and agreeing to continue current contract language on University
Benefits until a new contract is signed. In this session tentative
agreement was also reached on University Benefits, Grievance, Reduced Fee
Enrollment, Personnel Files and Hours of Work.
Wages were discussed at length. UC had provided CUE with parts of a
salary survey conducted for 2000 and 2001. Again UC's own data shows that
clerical salaries significantly lag the market. When we asked UC how much
money they were prepared to spend on clerical salary increases, we were
told that they couldn't tell us. When we asked them what 1% of clerical
salaries were for 2000-2001, initially we were told they couldn't tell but
then they gave us the figure (about $5 million). CUE continues to argue
that UC can afford a fair wage increase for clericals and that the
merits we have earned are owed to us. UC's insistence on denying merits is
particularly offensive, given the fact that the very high turnover among
clericals means that merits cost UC very little.
New language on Hours of Work provides protections against completely
arbitrary changes in work schedules and discriminatory denials of alternate
work schedules. Unreasonable denials of requests for alternate work
schedules are grievable through step 2 of the grievance procedure. In
addition, when assigning overtime supervisors will have to take into
consideration an employee's individual circumstances, which might make
working overtime difficult or impossible.
There continue to be major differences between CUE and UC on Health &
Safety, Layoff, and Wages.
The next bargaining is scheduled for Oakland July 9-11.
CUE's Bargaining Team:
- Margy Wilkinson, Chief Negotiator
- Chris Benoit, Lead Negotiator
- Mark Covington, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Becky Croll, Davis
- Deborah Freeman, San Francisco
- Jody Galluzzi, San Diego
- Elaine Hernandez, Irvine
- Connie McGrath, Riverside
- Joanne Murray, Santa Barbara
- Zoe Sodja, Santa Cruz
- Anita Windom-Jones, Los Angeles
