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NOTES FROM THE BARGAINING BUBBLE #11
by Bert Thomas, UCLA Representative, CUE BARGAINING TEAM
(A personal diary, not the Official Report)
UC SANTA CRUZ, JANUARY 25-27, 2005
LADIES & GENTS...CHECK YOUR BACK-BONES
Congratulations to the 2003-04 "Re-Opener Bargaining Team", led by long-time CUE activist, Linda Moser of UC Davis...to CUE's Attorney Ari Krantz, and to the Statewide Executive Board for marshalling the resources of Dr. Peter Donohue, forensic economist, who found the University's $5 billion "unrestricted reserves", hiding in plain sight...and Kathleen Hurley, compensation analyst, whose testimony made toast of UC's claims of "fair pay" and parity with comparable positions outside the University. A stunning SLAM-DUNK! The widely respected neutral Arbitrator, Gerald R. McKay, independent Fact-Finder, heard CUE's side and the University's side in late November in 5 days of hearings and reached the following conclusions:
So, let's see now...are there STILL any people in the clerical classes who believe the University is telling the truth?...that there's no reason to be talking about a strike because "the University is doing the best it can in hard economic times"? And the Tooth Fairy's rich, and how about that Easter Bunny laying colored eggs? And hiding them. (Oh, remind me to leave you a joke at the end of this bubble, won't you?)
Time to snap out of it, ladies & gents. No matter how loyal or competent or ingenious you strive to be, the mighty corporate University...doesn't actually care. You are just not difficult to "recruit and retain", therefore, you are not worth encouraging or keeping. Clear enough? My, I hope so.
"GOOD FAITH BARGAINING"...UNIVERSITY-STYLE
We were, of course, unable to begin the session at Santa Cruz on time...awaiting the arrival of CUE's Bargaining Representative Norine Shima from UC Berkeley. For some months now, her department has denied her the "travel-time" to attend bargaining--this, with the knowledge and approval of UC's Chief Negotiator, Peter Chester, who seems unconcerned that this gamy tactic (being applied now, I gather, to two other CUE Bargainers: Brigitte Moon of UC DAVIS and Kevin Parks of UC SANTA CRUZ) inconveniences both teams and impedes the bargaining process. CUE has filed an Unfair Labor Practice on the matter, but jeeze, Mr. Win-Win U.C. Goodfaith...why should we have to?
We had barely sat down in the Santa Cruz meeting room before Mr. Chester, and his team-mate, Susan Wright of UC San Francisco, began to worry aloud over an announced rally in support of CUE, scheduled to take place on campus the final day of our visit. Mr. Chester worried over "the number of people involved" and whether the demonstrations would be "respectful". CUE's Chief Negotiator Amatullah Alaji-Sabrie suggested that Peter and his team might be less fearful if they were to "model the behavior" they wanted. "If, for instance, the University showed honest respect for its workers it might not need to fear them."
A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR PETER
Let's start with Ms. Shima, Pete...if we fix this one, I bet the others will be fixed as well. And I bet that ULP will go away, too. Sound good? Perhaps a word from you to her fine supervisor, stating that it's real hard to claim the University is "bargaining in good faith" when elected members of the CUE Bargaining Team are individually or selectively targeted for cheesy treatment by an ambitious middle manager. Wave that Office-of-the-President flag! Say something like: "I, Peter Chester, Assistant Director of Labor Relations, UCOP, order you to grant Ms. Norine Shima, CUE Bargaining Representative for UC Berkeley, the full respect and equal standing accorded all members of every union bargaining team, to include the granting of travel time she requests in order to attend University/CUE bargaining meetings. Your continuing obstructive behavior in this matter flies in the face of our claim to be bargaining in good faith and causes me and my team to look stupid and dishonest. Give it up now. Very truly yours, etc." Or words to that effect.
There, Peter, I've written the memo for you and everything. You're welcome. Copy me when it goes out, won't you?
RFT...AN OBSCURE CONCEPT
We spent most of the day on the RESPECTFUL, FAIR TREATMENT Article of the contract. Oddly enough. Mr. Chester says the University just doesn't want RFT to be grieveable or arbitrable. From the beginning of bargaining last summer, the University has held that worker grievances filed on issues of Respectful, Fair Treatment are trivial matters, based on specious charges put forward by lazy Stewards whose cases are weak and unable to demonstrate any actual "harm" to the worker. Apparently, the University needs to see cuts and bruises. It is a characteristic of Dis-respectful, Un-fair Treatment that it usually leaves no visible marks. And if the University has its way, it will be a one-way street. You can be fired for it...or else you can be fired for complaining about it.
Well, dang it...Homey don't play that. The University's position, as represented by its lead negotiator, continues to assert superior judgement, self-righteousness and infallibility...notwithstanding hours of testimony to the contrary. Mr. Chester likes the idea of "Labor-Management Meetings" and/or the "Ombudsman" as a venue for resolving differences in Respectful, Fair Treatment matters. CUE believes that disciplinary action must be a two-way street, and that sanctions must be applied as vigorously to management as to employees wherever the vaunted "Principles of Community" are contravened, no matter by whom.
It is interesting to note that Susan Wright, UC's team member from San Francisco, acquitted herself with some sensitivity to CUE's concerns in these discussions. And though it be a "kiss of death" to record a certain fineness of heart and mind here, Ms. Wright came in for praise from the CUE team at the end of the day.
DAY 2: R-E-S-P-E-C-T...FIND OUT WHAT IT MEANS...
This day was a continuing discussion on Respectful, Fair Treatment issues. CUE continued to propose "360-degree Performance Evaluations"--meaning Employees evaluate supervisors in the same way that supervisors evaluate employees, with the same consequences for discipline and entries in Personnel Files. We have been made aware of organizations and corporations where the practice has been implemented with success. UC's own websites and wall signs boast of a respect policy to be observed by all...respect for staff, management, students, patients...yep, everybody gets respect at UC. Don't you? NOW I do. Now that I'm a known CUE activist. Before, I used to tell everybody that I came to work just for the abuse. It was very interesting to hear UC's Mr. Chester allow as how he was unaware of any such policy. Shocking, actually. Even his own team members needed to confirm for him that such a thing existed. My, my...
INCENTIVE AWARD PROGRAMS (IAP's). The University is busily telling CUE members that they can't have their Incentive Awards because the union is negotiating the matter. While it's true that we are negotiating how the money will be disbursed in FUTURE years, it's ILLEGAL for the University to be withholding or delaying the current awards, particularly in this "status quo" (no contract) period when management has a legal obligation to preserve status quo, including making the awards to CUE workers who've already earned them. Here, we see the noble University of California in all its small-minded, mean-spirited depravity--no opportunity to play dumb-and-ugly shall be missed--when talking to a union of workers it doesn't value all that much.
You are legally entitled to your Incentive Award right now. The University is using current bargaining as an excuse to not pay it out. The excuse is illegal, and the University knows it. And it just doesn't care. (Are you feeling "respected" yet?)
Here's why CUE is hammering the point for the NEXT agreement: IAP's have been applied over the years as a means of dividing the workers in whole departments through favoritism, racism, and as a twisted kind of discipline. By granting awards to individuals instead of ALL ELIGIBLE EMPLOYEES within a department, the University management has rewarded its "pets" and ITSELF. There was a time when everyone in my department at UCLA got the same award, for example...but a few years ago, only management and the friends of management were so rewarded. Often these were people already making fine salaries who went to lunch together and covered each other's tails in potentially embarrassing matters..."team players" the University likes to call them. And this, of course, meant that many fine employees were overlooked because they'd foolishly called attention to errors and omissions that embarrassed a supervisor, a department, or perhaps they'd joined CUE, or worse, gotten so fed up they'd become an "activist" on behalf of their co-workers. Thus, IAP's became "disciplinary"...by being withheld. That's the argument.
Members of the UC team understand and agree that it's a problem. The aforementioned Susan Wright of Labor Relations in San Francisco spoke with sense and comprehension of our concerns while, at the same time, trying gamely to make Peter Chester's more off-putting remarks less offensive or puzzling. (At the end of the day, even HE thanked her.)
DEMANDS TO BARGAIN (DTB's) remain unclear as a matter for discussion at the "Big Table". During expiration of the contract, most of your local management's changes in work rules, working conditions, work hours, etc., must proceed to the Bargaining Table as "Demands to Bargain" to be dealt with by the bargaining teams, thus bypassing the normal contractually stipulated meet-and-confer/meet-and-discuss procedures. Mr. Chester objects to this inconvenience; CUE insists it is meant to spur the pace of negotiations...no contract, no peace. CUE Bargainer (and Statewide President) from UC San Francisco, Mary Higgins, still presents such matters at the table with...let's say "verve and tenacity". None has been resolved yet, but not for want of vigorous prosecution.
DAY 3: "YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION"
"Rally Day". It was in the air from the very start. A little before noon, we began to hear the drums, whistles, bullhorn, and chants of more than a hundred workers from every UC union, students, teachers, local politicians, and numerous CUEsters approaching the bargaining room in happy solidarity. They had been warned by our CUE Bargainer from Santa Cruz, Kevin Parks, that Mr. Chester wanted them to be "respectful"...and so they were. And noisy and enthusiastic. Their spokespersons were invited inside while their remarks were broadcast outside by means of a wireless microphone. Brilliant.
Local CUE President, BECKY KLEIN, introduced a slew of speakers whose names and remarks I'll try to summarize here:
Santa Cruz City Councilman TIM FITZMAURICE: "The burden UC places on CUE employees is extremely high...there's a crisis among university employees. I know you're going to be creative..."
PAUL ORTIZ, Professor, Community Studies: "We are very disturbed at the negative impact of University policies on the employees of this institution. We are presenting to you a Faculty petition declaring that our capacity to do our jobs is being compromised by issues of low wages, benefits and rights of UC's clerical workers."
A CUE worker named MICHELLE spoke in tears and fury: "I need everyone to listen! It's not fair! I'm a single mother of 3 who can't support my family because I work at this big university!"
RYAN COONERTY, Santa Cruz City Council & UCSC Lecturer: "Workers at UCSC constitute a burden on this city because they're underpaid. Budgets reflect our humanity, what kind of people we are." (It's worth noting that the Mayor of Santa Cruz, MIKE ROTKIN, also a Lecturer here, had served as Chief Negotiator for his union, AFT-American Federation of Teachers--up against the University represented by...guess who?...Peter Chester. Wacky, ain't it? A busy, busy guy.)
DANA FRANK, Professor, Labor Studies: "I ask you to refuse to participate in the 'class politics' expressed in wage suppression and union-busting tactics of this University against its lowest-paid workers. Only at the top are people treated with humanity and generosity...everyone else is dirt?"
JULIAN POSADAS, AFSCME worker: "It is embarrassing to report these numbers, these wages, this poverty..."
ROBERT WEIL, AFT, Lecturer: "It's time for UC to get its priorities straight...we're not corporate Enron, not set up to make a few fat cats fatter!"
CHANDA PRESCOD-WEINSTEIN, UAW, Teaching Assistant: "80% of CUE workers make less than a living wage for Santa Cruz County. I represent the 500 TA's of UCSC's Grad Student Solidarity Network. I hope this is the last time I have to come here, but if not, I'll be back!"
PHIL JOHNSON, President, UPTE, Santa Cruz Local: "I was formerly a member of CUE, re-classed into a better-paid position represented by UPTE. From my experience with both unions, I have witnessed first-hand the bad-faith bargaining tactics of the University. We need a contract, on time! Step increases that keep pace with the local economy, simple fairness! UC tells the public it is a 'public institution'...but it really behaves like the worst of corporate models."
DARYLYN DRUHE, Member, CUE Local Executive Board, repeated details of UC Santa Cruz' "disgrace" and scandal swirling about the new Chancellor's creation of a $192,000 a year job for her partner, complete with $60,000 "relocation costs."
CUKO MARCOS, AFSCME Worker: "They mess with CUE, they mess with US!"
UC SANTA CRUZ...SOMETHING IN THE WATER
The workers, students and City officials of Santa Cruz set a new benchmark for activism in behalf of social justice in the UC system...things historically associated with the larger campuses at Berkeley and even UCLA back in the day. And it would take something other than a man, something other than a human being with a heart and mind, to be unmoved by it. Someone for whom love and a heartfelt good wish are painful acts of labor. Someone unable to smile, but only leer at the camera. Perhaps UC President Bob Dynes is toughing his way through the world missing these vital organs. If so, he deserves our wonder and sympathy, but not our enabling compliance. I am absolutely positive that there is no one on the University team who dreamt of being the agent of an uncaring man or institution, standing on the wrong side of "values" they were taught to honor and defend when they were young. Doubtless their salaries--and status in the University pecking order--have inured them to frequent introspection on what they've become, what they are doing with their lives, the abandonment of human values that once meant everything. It cannot be that they grew up hoping to stand in opposition to large groups of people protesting working conditions, pay rates and lifestyles grotesquely inferior to their own. True, privilege grows into arrogance. But it is always accompanied by a sickly guilt. And fear. And paranoia. The rally crowd at Santa Cruz brought it home to the University team. And the University team will try to forget it as soon as possible.
May you remind them very soon at UCLA.
BARGAINING COMES TO UCLA
On February 23-25, Wednesday thru Friday, the teams will meet here at UCLA. Local 4 officers and activists are planning a rousing good time for you to join and contribute to the process on Thursday, the 24th. A lunchtime rally (with sandwiches provided) and testimony from the Bargaining rooms are being prepared. You are absolutely welcome to sit in, be introduced, and address the room if you'd like. Contact the Local 4 office at 310/473-7428 for more information. Local Vice-President Jen Smith is taking speaker reservations.
And now you can JOIN CUE wherever you are. It's now possible to fill out
the application ONLINE at:
http://www.cueunion.org/membership_info/membformweb.pdf
Fill out the form, print, sign and mail it. So much easier than before. Your
membership sends a clear message to the University and celebrates your
solidarity with 17,000 clerical co-workers from Santa Cruz to San Diego,
throughout the University of California. For extra help, call our mighty
Local 4 Organizers:
THE STRIKE FUND...AN INVESTMENT IN YOUR FUTURE
Donating an hour's pay to the CUE Strike Fund every month is something I feel good about doing. Sort of an investment. Yeah, I do expect to get it back eventually. Send it to:
CUE Bookkeeper
ATTN: Strike Fund
2855 Telegraph Avenue - Ste. 302
Berkeley, CA 94705
Blessins and Solidarity,
--BT (Bert Thomas, CUE's UCLA Bargaining Representative)
2.22.05
"THE BUNNY & THE SNAKE"
Once upon a time, in a nice little forest, there lived an orphaned bunny and an orphaned snake. By a surprising coincidence, both were blind from birth. One day, the bunny was hopping through the forest, and the snake was slithering through the forest, when the bunny tripped over the snake and fell down. This, of course, knocked the snake about quite a bit.
Oh, my, said the bunny, I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I've been blind since birth, so, I can't see where I'm going. In fact, since I'm also an orphan, I don't even know what I am.
It's quite ok, replied the snake. Actually, my story is as yours. I too have been blind since birth, and also never knew my mother. Tell you what, maybe I could slither all over you, and work out what you are so at least you'll have that going for you.
Oh, that would be wonderful replied the bunny. So the snake slithered all over the bunny, and said, Well, you're covered with soft fur, you have really long ears, your nose twitches, and you have a soft cottony tail. I'd say that you must be a bunny rabbit.
Oh, thank you, thank you, cried the bunny, in obvious excitement. The bunny suggested to the snake, Maybe I could feel you all over with my paw, and help you the same way that you've helped me. So the bunny felt the snake all over, and remarked, Well, you're smooth and slippery, and you have a forked tongue, no backbone and no balls. I'd say you must be either a team leader, a supervisor or possibly someone in senior management.
(Provided originally by CUE Bargainer Mary Jo Kelly of UC DAVIS.)