Bargaining Bubble #6

NOTES FROM THE BARGAINING BUBBLE #6

by Bert Thomas, UCLA Representative, CUE BARGAINING TEAM
(A personal diary, not the Official Report)

TINY BUBBLE

This will be a quickie. We're off to UC San Diego for another 3-day session at the beginning of next week (October 26-28), so there's not time to be quite so chatty, so artsy--so "Bubble-icious", if you will-- about our recent work in Davis. Regular readers of these dispatches will probably say "oh dang..."

RAINY DAY WOMEN...(AND A COUPLE GUYS)

It was a dark and stormy night...no really, it was. Bob Dylan was performing on campus. I found out too late. And it was still dark and stormy in the morning. The University's team members and a couple of ours were delayed by the weather and driving conditions, so the teams agreed to convene after lunch. The Davis campus was beautiful...the meeting rooms wonderful and well-equipped. (Note to Self: UC Davis is very cool. Jeeze, Bob Dylan...)

"CPR for CTO"

And "CTO" was in the air. The University's Lead Negotiator, Peter Chester, suggested we begin with the subject of our differences over the "Comp Time Off" vs. "Payout" issue. It had become an issue with Mr. Chester following expiration of the contract on September 30th for reasons not entirely clear to us. You remember those forms we fill out and sign every year to indicate whether we want to be PAID for OverTime worked...or posted to our Comp Time accrual for use at our discretion (with the usual supervisory approval, of course). Well, Mr. Chester had gone ahead and issued some sort of Office of the President directive to all campuses instructing them to Pay Out the time worked...that the expiration of the CUE/UC contract meant that the department didn't have to honor our selection of "Comp Time Off" (CTO) if that had been our choice on the form we filled out earlier in the year.

Can't fathom why he did that, except possibly to annoy us. Sorta gratuitous, it was. And it's interesting because the University's behavior here is predicted in Interest-Based Negotiating theory...it's called "Interest-Based Aikido". It means that your big strong opponent has acted recklessly out of frustration, throwing his weight and commitment into a thoughtless move that will land him on his back seeing stars and wondering what the hell happened. My personal hero, Muhammed Ali had a name for it, too. He called it "Rope-A- Dope".

I hate reporting that it took a day and a half of intensive discussion to resolve this weighty matter, I really do. But after learning that only two campuses had actually begun to act on the directive (UC Davis and Santa Barbara), CUE proposed that any clerical employee who wanted the TIME OFF instead of the PAY, be allowed to fill out a one-time-only form to be filed with their payroll department indicating the preference. We estimated that fewer than a hundred workers-perhaps far fewer than that-would be affected systemwide.

Perhaps our proposed solution was just too simple. The University withdrew to caucus, and returned to declare the idea "an administrative nightmare"...their position "had not changed." CUE's Chief Negotiator, Amatullah Alaji-Sabrie, was moved to ask: "Is this about 'punishment', Peter?" Mr. Chester stoutly insisted nothing could be further from the truth. And of course we believed him.

The heroic Melinda Gandara, CUE's team member from Santa Barbara, then rose to address the University team holding up a copy of the New York Times. She displayed a page wherein honors and recognition of a Nobel Prize winner at UCSB was the subject. She reported that the event covered by the story had been put together by a UC Santa Barbara team that included a clerical worker who had worked on the project overtime to make it a success...and had expected to use the OT to be with her cancer-patient husband, who was about to undergo an extensive surgery. She wondered how Santa Barbara's Nobel Prize winner would feel about Mr. Chester's determination to deny this worker her earned time off. UC retired to another caucus.

By the end of the day, Mr. Chester said he had "taken care of" the clerical worker in Santa Barbara. Indeed, the whole campus at UCSB had been taken care of the same way. My, my...THAT was easy. An "administrative nightmare" heroically obviated with the snap of a cell phone. A fire put out by the fireman who started it. But what about the other campuses?

DAY TWO: "BLOWIN' IN THE WIND"

The next day we all began anew with more Demand/Explanation work on the articles to be included and reworked in the next CUE/UC agreement. Alphabetically, we're in the "R"s now: REDUCED FEE ENROLLMENTS, REHABILITATION/REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION, RESIGNATION/JOB ABANDONMENT...for those of you following along in your copy of the old contract (that'll be no more than two of you, I'm pretty sure). And anyway, "CTO" was still in the air.

Right after lunch, in fact, Peter Chester's team came in smiling. He announced that the University had re-considered its position and was presenting a proposal that all existing CTO "elections" (the aforementioned form we filled out earlier in the year indicating preference for TIME OFF or PAY) "shall go back into effect...as soon as practicable, but no later than November 1, 2004." CUE's Amatullah called a caucus...we chatted briefly and agreed to it, on condition that the Office of the President take immediate steps to notify all campuses at once. Mr. Chester assured us it would be faxed/emailed that afternoon.

I believe this is the first time both teams have applauded. At the same time, I mean. And it was CUE's Amatullah who coined the phrase, "CPR for CTO".

"NOT ALL OUR SUPERVISORS ARE GENIUSES."

Really? Somebody in the room actually said this in connection with one of our discussions. And it wasn't a member of the CUE team. It has become pretty clear by now that these NOTES FROM THE BARGAINING BUBBLE are reviewed with interest by our friends on the University team. They know who said it, and I'll do him a favor this time by not revealing his name...his bitter and humorless old bosses would have him pilloried and beaten with sticks. But they will not "win" in these peculiar arguments they've ordered their team to take up. No one on the University team has passion or enthusiasm for the University's proposals. None that I can see, at any rate. It has more to do with schoolyard bullying...someone pulling strings from the safety of a well- appointed hiding place in the Office of the President, located in the Land of Oz. We're dealing with the powerless here, people who live in more fear than we do...because they know we are right. And I honestly believe they hate this part of their jobs.

As you read this we'll be meeting our UC bargaining buddies again at UC San Diego on October 26th thru the 28th. This is the first time our contract negotiations have ever taken place ON CAMPUS in San Diego. Join us if you can. Contact your CUE Local to find out the exact location. Whenever possible, we love seeing you at these Bargaining meetings to hear and to be heard. Your emails and interests count. Sometimes we read them to the other team.

We may be talking about some major action in the next few months, and your REAL activism in CUE--is more and more important. Find out what you can do by contacting your local CUE office.

And feel free to pass this message along to friends and co-workers, especially those who have no email access in their workplaces. Print it. Make copies. Leave them where your boss can find them.

Blessins,

--BT (Bert Thomas, CUE's UCLA Bargaining Representative)
October 19-20, 2004