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NOTES FROM THE BARGAINING BUBBLE #9(B)
by Bert Thomas, UCLA Representative, CUE BARGAINING TEAM
(A personal diary, not the Official Report)
at UC SANTA BARBARA - DECEMBER 1-2, 2004
continued at UCOP on DECEMBER 21, 2004
Happy New Year
"THE BEATINGS WILL CONTINUE UNTIL MORALE IMPROVES"
Not exactly a timely chronicle, this, but here goes.
I waited three weeks on this report to give the University a chance to do the right thing on the "Two Bonus Days" opportunity they had squandered in bargaining meetings at UC Santa Barbara December 2nd. (They didn't.) Then my computer broke, and now it's the middle of January. Oh fargin' well...
In the Santa Barbara meetings University Negotiator, Peter Chester, had seemed hellbent on getting CUE to make important concessions before the Fact Finder's Report came out. (Fact Finding has operated on a parallel track, with a different bargaining team, to settle the "Re-Opener" questions from the LAST contract--now expired. Those questions had to do with Parking, Benefits, and Wages.) From all reports, CUE's presentations to the Fact Finder were extraordinary -- particularly when compared to the University's, which were perfunctory, predictable and ill-prepared.
The sessions in Santa Barbara began with CUE's presentation of a counter-proposal early in the day to move the negotiations off the dime:
CUE-represented staff, other unions (UPTE, AFSCME and best of all, the Associated Students led by a brilliant young firebrand, Bill Shiebler), put on a show of support for CUE issues that included a noontime rally with waterbottle drums, fiery speeches by workers, union members and students alike.
Perhaps Mr. Chester was flustered by the events, leading him to make a poor choice of speech (a denial, as I recall, of something he'd said at a previous meeting, noted by literally ALL of us at the time). Whereupon CUE's Chief Negotiator, Amatullah Alaji-Sabrie went briefly insane, God love 'er, slamming the table and raising her voice in a way that none of us had ever heard. Things boiling beneath the polite exchanges at the table were given some air-time... approximately as follows:
She charged the University of California with "stealing from the public and its own students to pay bloated salaries to top administrators and to construct more monuments to its greatness ... doing it on the backs of workers and students and the citizens of California ... lying to the press and the public over and over about an imaginary budgetary shortfall ... at the same time, announcing 'profits' of $786 million in the last fiscal year ... knowing full well that a very small percentage of that number alone would fund every increase in CUE's Wage's proposal." She named the 'budget shortfall' an "artificial contrivance used by the University to conceal its enormous wealth from the State Legislature and the public." And to Peter Chester: "You have been dishonest with us from the very start ... claiming you wanted 'Win-Win' negotiations. You have lied about your intention to deal respectfully with us and our workers. You have no intention of negotiating with us fairly. You have no power to negotiate with us fairly. You have been lying to us! You do not negotiate. You PRETEND to negotiate. You merely parrot what they tell you to say, and when we ask you to explain it, you say: 'That's the University's position'. That is NOT negotiating, Peter! We've watched you a long time now!"
Well, Peter was offended. He picked up his team, his ball and his bat, and left the room. Amatullah received a standing ovation from the CUE team, members and activists remaining in the room. She explained in tears that she had been a little upset. We have all been a little upset, it all needed to be said. The University's bargaining effort has been little more than a puppet show.
THE PRE-HOLIDAY REMATCH
Just days after that session, UC's Chester called CUE's Amatullah urgently requesting another meeting on December 21st.
That meeting was held at UCOP's usual place for negotiating with worker organizations -- a converted storage area in their parking garage called, somewhat grandly, "Conference Room C".
And no, Peter Chester still had nothing new to present. As expected, it seemed again that he was merely going through the motions of trying to appear sincere, for the record, when the matter is reviewed by PERB (the Public Employment Relations Board). CUE expects to win the point eventually and get your two days of pay back. By then, this shabby union-busting tactic will be yet another public embarrassment for the University and administrative nightmare for the Payroll Department. I suppose that's job security for somebody.
CUE has filed an UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICE charge over the selective and discriminatory manner in which unrepresented workers were granted the "2 Bonus (Bogus) Days" while union members were not.
SOMETHING TO KEEP IN MIND
It is pointless to be angry with Peter Chester...he makes well in excess of a hundred thousand a year, apparently happy in the role of "mouthpiece to power." We sit at a table "negotiating" with people who make 3, 4, 5, even 6 times what we make. OF COURSE they don't understand -- nor can they really afford to care about -- your hardship, your family, your rights. We must be clear about this...Peter Chester ain't the problem. He is merely the problem's picket fence and stone wall...protecting those who pay him so handsomely from us, the worker rabble. Not a job you or I would want, or even be able to do, but probably the best one he's ever had. It's plain he is passionately concerned with keeping it. It buys a lot of nice things... things we can only wish for. A house, a new car, a vacation trip with the kids, a savings account. Things the corporate University feels we are no longer entitled to expect from our working lives. These people are not smarter nor better looking than you. Nor do they work harder...quite often, they work a great deal less. And when there is misfortune or hardship, they can afford its costs, one way or another.
They are not evil. They are merely selfish little human beings rewarded, they think, by the practice of selfishness within a selfish and self-important corporation. The struggle for fairness and social justice is too big for them, too risky. I doubt that most of them have given it much thought. They've got theirs; why bother about anyone else? It's important to ask ourselves if we'd be any different. Important to know the answer, or else you're nobody.
THEY WORK US LIKE THEY OWN US,
AND PAY US LIKE THEY HATE US.
At the UCOP website, in a page of text purporting to describe "Status of negotiations regarding the bonus leave program", you can admire the UC language we hear at the bargaining table so much of the time that I wonder if Peter Chester didn't write it. After going on about how CUE's public rejection of the University's wage proposal is 'incorrect', it reads: "In fact, the University's current three-year offer (to CUE) provides for general salary increases in both 2005-06 and 2006-07, ASSUMING UC RECEIVES SUFFICIENT STATE FUNDING." Just remarkable. From the word "assuming" on to the end, the "general salary increases" disappear in smoke and mirrors. They don't NEED State funding to pay us fairly. They don't even use all that much State funding to pay anybody here...because they have much richer sources of revenue than the California legislature. They want us to blame Arnold and the California Assembly. Arnie and the Assembly account for only about 16-17% of the University's operating revenue. Even Arnie would call that a "girly-man" argument...or something. But don't look to HIM for a pay increase. Donating an hour's pay to the CUE Strike Fund every month makes more sense to me as an investment in reality. (Yes, I am doing that.)
PICTURE THE SOLUTION NEXT TO THE PROBLEM
Got a scary picture for you. It's the top of The Problem alluded to earlier. Can't imagine what they were thinking...check it out: Dynes' picture on the December 2004 newsletter to the UC Community.
It's "Marley's Ghost". It'd frighten small children.
And it'll look great on a strike poster.
JOIN CUE, wherever you are. It costs under a buck a month and entitles you to vote. No whining. Your membership sends a message to the University and celebrates your support and solidarity with 17,000 clerical workers throughout the University of California. A thing I love is courage. It's sexier and cheaper than plastic surgery or Botox. Check on your membership by calling our mighty Local 4 Organizers:
The Bargaining Team just returned from sessions at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab -- a different UC world. I'll try to get a "Bubble" out soon on that adventure.
Next one's at UC Santa Cruz, January 25-27.
And donate an hour's pay to the Strike Fund now. Ask me how...
Blessins,
--BT (Bert Thomas, CUE's UCLA Bargaining Representative)
1.20.05