2004-2005: Bargaining Report #4: October 26-28, 2004, San Diego, CA
The Team met with UC at the San Diego Campus October 26-28. It was quite
an adventure. San Diego had the heaviest rainy day in its history on the 27th.
The business at hand was to continue to complete the "demand explanation"
phase of bargaining. To recap, this means that each side has an opportunity to
answer questions about the other's proposals, and to explain its own
proposals. We are making our way alphabetically through the contract Articles.
Before we picked up where we had left off in Davis, members from the San
Diego Local addressed UC's Team with complaints about the obstructive
administration at the UCSD Labor Relations department. The UC Unions have
a long history of difficulties exercising our basic rights at UCSD. UCSD Labor
Relations is notorious, and it lived up to its billing. It is so rewarding to
have members in the rooms, even though they are usually sharing horror stories.
Thank you again, San Diego for coming out, and meeting us and participating
in the process, and, of course, for your wonderful support.
The Respectful, Fair Treatment Article was the first contract discussion of the
day. UC's proposal seeks to significantly limit the use of this article in the
grievance procedure. Our proposal is to extend our right to be able to
arbitrate violations of this article. We could not be further apart on this Article.
UC complained that almost every grievance filed cites this article as being
violated. We responded that this Article is violated regularly by supervisors
and since the current contract language does not allow unfair and disrespectful
treatment to be arbitrated, the University is actually enabling supervisors to
continue this behavior with impunity. CUE's team members presented many
examples, especially one that dramatically illustrated our concerns. Nancy
Kabzenell, the UCSD Team member, passionately related that she once had a
supervisor who would send her out regularly to get her, the supervisor, a Diet
Coke. Nancy had to go to one place to get special ice that the supervisor
liked, and another place to get the actual Diet Coke. (The ice place had only Diet
Pepsi - which the supervisor didn't like.)
The Shift Differential Article was next on the agenda. The clericals who are
eligible for shift differentials desperately need to have them increased to
come into parity with the marketplace as well as with other UC employees who are
paid shift differentials. Those affected by this Article are primarily Medical
Center clericals, dispatchers and library assistants. We pointed out the vast
inequities among UC employees.
Many are compensated in multiple dollar amounts, and ours only get between
$0.32 and $0.37. Many non-clerical employees even get weekend differentials.
Our proposal includes a proposal for weekend shift differentials as well as
increased swing and graveyard shift differentials.
Sick Leave Article. Both sides are pretty much in agreement with our proposed
changes. Both sides are proposing to include domestic partners for FMLA
coverage. CUE's definition includes both same and opposite sex domestic
partners.
Subcontracting Article. We had a short discussion about what kind of work can
be subcontracted out. CUE has strong protective language now, and we are
seeking to preserve and strengthen it. Our language mirrors protective
legislation. Every year UC goes to Sacramento to try to gut the protective
language. To date, the UC Unions have been successful in fighting back UC's
attacks, but we must stay vigilant.
Training and Development. The most significant changes that CUE has
proposed are for increased paid time for training from 24 hours to 40 hours
annually, and that it be career-related not just job-related. UC contended that
clericals are not taking advantage of what we have now. We countered with
the arguments that we are routinely prevented by supervisors, and that the
demand is more for career-related training, rather than just job-related
training.
We discussed the Transfer, Promotion and Reclass Article. All our discussions
are lively, but this was particularly clamorous. CUE's language seeks to
prevent involuntary transfers. We have seen an increase in this practice by UC
in the last year, often in retaliation for filing a complaint against a
supervisor.
CUE wants to be able to grieve and arbitrate such situations when they occur.
Also, we want to be able to arbitrate reclassification requests that have been
denied, as well as job descriptions that clericals assert accurately detail the
work they do, when supervisors refute their accuracy. We need to be able to
appeal to an objective party when a job description and/or its classification
are in dispute.
A significant development was that UC submitted a revised University Benefits
Article that differed from their proposal submitted in June 2004. Our belief
is that the recent PERB decision upholding the UC-AFT's assertion that the
University does not have the right to increase health insurance premiums
during the status quo period had substantial bearing on the revision of this
Article. This ruling, coupled with the efforts of the Coalition of Unions with
UC management to hold down the cost of insurance premiums to the lower-paid
employees and the refusal of CUE and UPTE to extend our contracts beyond
their expiration dates, are additional factors that we believe affected UC's
revision. By not extending the contracts, status quo went into effect. The
changes that UC is proposing seek to have us waive the protection during the
status quo period from increased insurance premiums.
In conclusion, we are moving towards the end of this phase of the process. We
hope you will stay engaged with us. Let us know how you feel. Please contact
us if you have any questions or comments. And join us when we are
bargaining on your campus.
For those of you who await the latest installment of the Bubble, please go to:
http://www.cueunion.org/bargaining/reports.php.
CUE bargaining team for October 26-28:
Norine Shima, UCB
Mary Jo Kelly, UCD
Kevin Parks, UCSC
Alice Guillory, UCSF
Mary Higgins, UCSF
Cynthia Norman, UCI
Bert Thomas, UCLA
Melinda Gandara, UCSB
Nancy Kabzenell, UCSD
Maria LaBarrie, UCR
Amatullah Alaji-Sabrie, Chief Negotiator, UCB
