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Help for clericals -- from Sacramento
October 17, 2005
Help for clericals -- from Sacramento
TO: UC Clericals
The following is a report from a recent hearing on UC labor relations, attended by representatives from CUE and other UC unions:
On October 5, CUE and five other UC unions gave testimony at a hearing on the Riverside campus convened by State Senator Jackie Speier, chair of the State Senate committee on Higher Education. At the hearing, Senator Speier sharply rebuked the head of UC's Human Resources, Associate Vice President Judith Boyette, for UC's failure to increase clerical pay. The roughly 100 unionists at the hearing were buoyed by Speier's comments as she cautioned Boyette that UC should be treating employees with the same level of respect, no matter how much or little they are paid.
Most of the union people present were from the Riverside campus; they were joined by members from Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, and Santa Barbara. Twenty members of Berkeley's Local 3 rode all night on a bus to attend the hearing.
The hearing was one of a series being sponsored by Speier's committee; it focused on UC's labor relations. The workers were represented by speakers from AFSCME (service workers), AFT (lecturers and librarians), CNA (nurses), CUE (clericals), UAW (academically employed students), and UPTE (professionals and technicals). Administrative Assistant Stephanie Dorton, who works at Berkeley's Boalt Law School, spoke for CUE.
Before the unions' testimony began, Senator Speier treated Boyette to a dramatic dressing down, based on the fact that in February 2005, a neutral fact-finder released a report showing that UC could and should increase clerical pay -- a report which UC ignored. Speier, who had been given the report by CUE members at an earlier hearing, had isolated several long and damning passages from the report, which she read aloud for Boyette's comments. The Senator ended that part of the hearing by telling Boyette: "I don't think there is any more to be said. How you deal with this situation is something I don't want to be engaged in. Just fix it." She added, "I absolutely commit to you that this subcommittee will continue to hold hearings until it is fixed."
Senator Speier was clearly angry that UC had still not provided her committee with information promised at an earlier hearing. At one point, Speier said that her committee was determined that UC should not become the Wal-Mart of higher education.
At one point, some minutes into Boyette's prepared testimony, Senator Speier invited Boyette to summarize her remaining points. Boyette immediately went to the issue of sympathy strikes and UC's determination to get every union to sign off on contract language prohibiting sympathy strikes. UC unions are being asked by UC to agree to contract language that would allow UC to fire an individual employee for honoring a picket line of another union, no matter if that strike is legal or not. In testimony from the unions, it was made clear that unions still in bargaining are "drawing a line in the sand" on the prohibition of sympathy strikes. Boyette described this dramatic attack on the unions and the rights of individual employees as a mere effort to "clarify" existing rights. The union witnesses made clear that this was not the case. Finally, unable to come up with a better argument, Boyette attempted to deflect attention from the issue by claiming that for some employees, facing picket lines is not a problem they face. When consulted, CUE members could think of no UC workers for whom this is true.
Leaving the hearing, CUE members who had testified at an earlier Speier committee hearing in Sacramento, pointed to the fact that their repeated appearances at the legislative hearings are having an impact and that legislators are beginning to see through UC's rhetoric and to appreciate how badly low paid staff are treated. Members from Local 3, which has taken the position to oppose state Proposition 75 on the November ballot, pointed out that if the Governor's Proposition 75 is passed, CUE would not be able to attend such legislative hearings or employ the lobbyist that the union retains to represent UC clericals in Sacramento.
CUE Statewide