UC Davis - 2001 Annual Report

REPORT TO MEMBERS - 2001 ACTIVITIES AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
COALITION OF UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEES, DAVIS LOCAL 7

We are proud of our new local Constitution that was adopted by our members with only one dissenting vote. One of the requirements of our Constitution is a yearly report to you, the members, on the activities, goals and objectives, and future plans for your local. We encourage you to read this report carefully, and to send us your opinions, suggestions, and questions. As you read the report, please think about activities that interest you and merit your personal involvement. To ensure continued success of your local and to make UC a better workplace for clericals, we need for you to become informed and involved.

The number one priority for the Davis local is to provide the highest quality representation for Davis clericals. We strive to be a model for all CUE locals in terms of representation and accountability. To achieve this goal, we have committed the majority of our resources to grievance representation, staff training, and other contract enforcement activities, such as filing Unfair Labor Practice charges when UCD violates the law or our contract. Attachment A: Summary of Activities, gives a brief overview of our Local activities during our past year.

Another priority is improving our local relationship with UCD Labor Relations (LR). We have worked diligently to build a relationship with UCD-LR that will enable us to improve working conditions for all of us. We had general meetings with Labor Relations in January, February, April and June to discuss how to improve communications. We have established a reputation of being knowledgeable, prepared, and ready to work hard to resolve issues. In addition we have:

In coordination with the other UCD unions, we have introduced the unions into UCD's New Employee Orientation presentations. Human Resources now gives an overview on union representation to all new employees. We have a representative present after each orientation to answer questions and sign up new members.

CUE was invited to the Employment Related Mediation in Higher Education and Public Employment Conference held on campus last fall. We attended as UCD's guests to learn what is currently happening in the area of mediation that may impact union representation. Mediation has recently become an option for cases brought to some Federal agencies we encourage employees to use as an additional resource for their grievances.

We presented the idea of a joint training with UCD-LR in Non-Adversarial Labor Relations. UCD agreed and we cosponsored a one-day training in October. Steve Barber, former Deputy Director of the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB), facilitated the group and we worked on new models for decision making with an emphasis on problem solving based on meeting the interests of each party. Both UCD-LR and CUE-Davis representatives feel that this training built a higher level of trust and spirit of cooperation, enabling us to work together more effectively. We have seen positive effects as we work to resolve grievances filed by employees.

The UCD unions were invited to give a presentation to UCD Human Resources Management Group. Our presentation was given in March by Janeene Fisher. Her presentation put a human face on the union for the managers and stressed our desire to have a relationship that focuses on mutual gains for all parties.

UCD-LR did a one-day Mediation Training workshop solely for CUE. The workshop focused on clarifying the role of mediation at UC and a discussion of where it might fit into our contractual relationship. We have not agreed to any use of mediation at this time, but we will continue to consider all options that may prove to be beneficial to us. Of course, any agreement on the use of mediation would have to contain guarantees preserving employees' rights under the contract and under the law.

UCD COALITION OF UNIONS

Continuing to build strong relationships with the other unions is crucial to strengthening CUE. We worked closely with the other UC unions (University Professional and Technical Employees [UPTE/CWA], University Council - American Federation of Teachers [UC-AFT], California Nurses Association [CNA], and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees [AFSCME]), to end the incentive awards and return increases to base building salary increases. UPTE/CWA and CUE held joint rallies last year to put pressure on UC to bargain more effectively and reduce the time in obtaining contracts. The Coalition held rallies and barbecues at the Medical Center to strengthen our presence there.

In September, we sent representatives from CUE to the CNA rally at the State Capital to put pressure on the Governor to insist on an adequate nurse-to-patient ratio in all hospitals. We have tabled with CNA at the Student Health Center to increase our presence for both clericals and nurses.

We had a representative at the Communication Workers of American (CWA) California 2001 Legislative Conference in March.

We recently attended Steward Training held by UPTE/CWA. We hope to be able to work more closely with them during 2002 to do joint training and to coordinate our stands on issues that are important to all represented employees at UCD.

The Coalition of Unions held a one-day workshop on Bullying in the Workplace in January. Even we were surprised at the number of employees who have serious problems with bullying supervisors. There have been follow-up groups for attendees at the workshop; and an on-line, confidential survey was developed and placed on the web. More information about bullying in the workplace may be accessed at http://www.bullybusters.org/.

LOCAL FINANCES & EXPENDITURES

The Davis Local receives approximately $140,000.00/year. As per the state Constitution, the remaining 50% or $140,000/year goes to the state organization. Our local funds have been spent to provide representation, training for staff and activists, and business expenses related to doing daily business.

We have hired one full-time staff Labor Representative who deals with grievance issues, files unfair labor practice charges, attends meet-and-discuss meetings with UCD labor relations, trains and mentors stewards, maintains local membership lists, and handles all calls and e-mails directed to the local. Beverly Kelley, our employee, volunteered for CUE from 1997-99, began working for CUE part-time in 2000, and became full-time in 2001 when she retired from the UCD Medical Center after 29 years of service.

We paid "lost-time" wages to one clerical employee, Linda Moser, for 6 months (May through October) in 2001. She worked one day a week for CUE while reducing her UCD time to 80%. She drafted the Constitution, developed local election rules, wrote officer job descriptions, attended meetings with LR and coordinated local finances.

We contracted with a private business to provide assistance with grievances, to handle legal hearings such as post-deprivations hearings, and to do some training and consultation on other labor issues. We contracted with a Sacramento attorney during 2001 to give us legal advice on grievances and contract interpretation. We have recently reevaluated our needs and our financial situation for 2002. We believe that we have developed a more cost effective way to continue to provide outstanding representation and training for CUE.

Our Labor Representative is now fully trained and capable of handling much more difficult cases, and can provide training for new stewards. We can now eliminate our dependence on outside experts and have ended our contract for labor consulting. This will result in considerable savings to the local.

We have negotiated an agreement with a prominent labor law firm, Beeson, Tayer & Bodine, which will provide us with more legal consulting, training, and arbitration handling at a significant reduction in cost. Jason Rabinowitz will be our contact with the firm and is already busy working on the two arbitrations we have scheduled for April and June, 2002. We will be inviting Mr. Rabinowitz to a membership meeting in the future so that you have an opportunity to meet him.

We bonded all of our local activists and our staff member. We are currently consulting with our attorney to determine the need for additional liability insurance and looking into the cost of such insurance.

In Attachment B [Statement of Income and Expenses 01/01/01 through 11/30/01] and Attachment C [Budget for 2002], you will find our income and expenses for 2001 and our projected budget for 2002. The budget for 2002 must have the final approval of our elected officers after we hold our local elections. The new Board will send a final approved budget to you after local elections and approval.

Please note that we do not have any plans at this time to rent an office. A lease, utilities, furniture, insurance, cleaning and staffing are very expensive. We do not have enough income to cover these expenses and to maintain a cash reserve for arbitrations, unexpected legal expenses, and other emergencies. An office would sit empty at least 75% of the time. We do not believe that this is cost effective. We are using rooms on campus and Medical Center to meet at no cost to us; our staff is working from a home office where we have our CUE telephone. We have a local post office box in Davis, and have rented a storage unit for archived files.

PLANS FOR 2002

We have reevaluated the way we do business and we have made the changes to ensure that we not only do more, but also do it more cost effectively. We have made changes that will free up funds to provide more training for staff, officers, and the local board, as well as provide more training for our members. We need to address the issue of increasing our membership, which still hovers around 23%. Numbers are important in moving UC and we need to reach at least 50%. Although hiring a membership organizer is not imminent, we will continue to look at our financial situation and weigh the need to increase membership with the costs involved.

We will be holding elections for local officers in the next few months. We are completing our election procedures, which will be reviewed by our attorney to ensure we are following accepted practice and the law. Several locals as well as the state organization have had election challenges filed against them. We intend to have our local elections meet the highest standards in the labor union arena and will comply with all laws as well as the local and state constitutions.

We are planning for at least three arbitrations this year. We will be arbitrating the resolution of grievances that have been denied through step 3 by UC. The issues involved in these cases are not just relevant to one individual clerical, but are issues that affect the rights of all clericals and enforcement of our contract. Arbitrations are a costly but necessary expense. The costs are split between UC and CUE. In addition, if our state organization approves of moving the arbitrations forward, they will split the CUE cost with the local. The two arbitrations we have presented to the state have been approved for arbitration and we expect that when we present our third case, it will be approved also.

Staff employees working for CUE have formed a union, Labor Workers Union, to protect their rights and to bargain their terms and conditions of employment. CUE-Davis strongly supports our employees right to organize and bargain a contract with CUE. CUE-Davis is encouraging our state organization to bargain a model contract with our employees. This can stand as an example of the kind of contract that we feel UC should be willing to bargain with clerical employees.

CUE Statewide continues bargaining with UC for our second contract, and you are being kept current on the progress through e-mails from the bargaining team. There are still many improvements to be made in our contract language. Locally, we are very concerned with UC's desire to stop the required notification to CUE on work rule changes. Discussions with UCD-LR have been successful tools in obtaining fairness for clericals. As always, we are pressing for equity increases for salaries. We are still significantly behind, and must press UC to continue to place salary equity as a top priority for staff.

We want to thank each of you for joining CUE. Your support is essential to keep our volunteers working, to motivate staff, and to push for respect and fairness from UC. We must continue to recruit new members to show UC that we have the support of our clerical employees. We need more members to become active, to run for office, to help with elections, to work on committees, and to assist in many of the mundane tasks associated with running a union. Please contact us if you can volunteer to help - we always have plans, ideas, and goals that need an extra pair of hands. CUE-Davis continues to meet twice a month, the first and third Wednesdays, from 5:30pm to 7pm, in room 2124 Wickson Hall on the Davis campus. We welcome your attendance.

If you have questions, comments or suggestions, please contact us at (916) 927-4283 or at cue_davis@hotmail.com.