| Coalition of University Employees (CUE) | 2855 Telegraph Ave., Suite #302, Berkeley, CA 94705 Contact CUE (510) 845-2221 (phone), (510) 845-7444 (FAX) |
CUE puts a high priority on informing and involving UC clericals. Issues we consider important include: fairly distributed wages that compensate for what we have lost to inflation; benefits, both preservation of existing ones and expansion to include better childcare provisions, for example; job security, including meaningful seniority rights and the conversion of casual employees to career status; improving the quality of our work lives, making sure that UC's work rules are reasonable and necessary; and equity, including affirmative action and equal pay for comparable worth.
Union dues are only very slightly higher than fair share fees (union dues are 0.5% of your salary, and fair share fees are 0.475%). Calculate your membership dues here! Once you fill out a union membership form, you will be entitled to all of the benefits and rights of union membership -- including voting in local and statewide elections or referenda; helping to set the union's priorities for bargaining; ratifying contracts; etc. Just as important, UC pays attention to the size of our membership. The more clericals join CUE, the more likely UC is to take us seriously at the bargaining table. Our union is much stronger if it has your support and involvement. We hope you join, and help us shape our union.
In summer and fall of 2002, clericals joined lecturers at Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Irvine, Davis, Riverside and Santa Barbara campuses walking off the job for 2-3 days in protest over the University's multiple unfair labor practices and bad faith bargaining. Santa Cruz campus was virtually shut down for 2 days, and disruptions were felt all over each of the other campuses involved.
In February, 2005, after a lengthy reopener negotiation over wages, benefits, and parking, UC and CUE reached impasse. Mediation produced no results, so the parties submitted to a fact-finders panel for final determination of the issues. The fact finding report found that the University diverted $20 million intended for clerical wage increases, choosing to spend the money on other purposes or add the money to UC reserves. In addition, in 2003-04 alone the University had a net income (revenues minus expenses) of $786 million. The report supports CUE's claim that clerical employees are among the lowest paid employees working in the University system, and when UC is compared to comparable employers the wage gaps are even greater than UC acknowledges. The neutral arbitrator, Gerald McKay, found that when assistant positions at UC are compared to comparable positions at CSU, UC clericals "earned approximately 22.7% less" and that for library assistants the gap is closer to 33%. This egregious condition exists because while the cost of living has increased 26.3% in the past 7 years, clerical pay ranges have gone up by only 9.5% in the same time period, during which time UC has bankrolled multiple millions of dollars in profit. The report recommended immediate retroactive wage increases for the Administrative Assistants, as well as equity increases for the Library Assistants and other clerical employees to bring them to parity.
CUE hopes to continue negotiating improvements in our wages and working conditions. We will need your support in order to make further gains in our wages and working conditions. Join CUE, and help us both set and achieve our goals!
You don't need to have a formal problem to call us -- we'd like to hear from you. But if you do have a problem about which you need advice, we urge you to get in touch with us right away.