| Coalition of University Employees (CUE) | 2855 Telegraph Ave., Suite #302, Berkeley, CA 94705 Contact CUE (510) 845-2221 (phone), (510) 845-7444 (FAX) |
CUE's Unfair Labor Practice charge details the University's violation of the Higher Education Employment Relations Act that governs collective bargaining between the University of California and the 13 unions that represent its workforce. The charges describe a pattern of "bad faith" behavior that is illegal under California law, because it delays, rather than advances, progress towards a contract. CUE has been in negotiations for a first contract with the University since August of 1998.
"UC has gone back on agreements that were already negotiated," said Margy Wilkinson, CUE negotiator from Berkeley. "They seem to want to drag out this process endlessly, but this time they've gone too far. Bad faith bargaining is a violation of the law, and CUE intends to pursue this charge to its fullest extent."
The PERB record reveals the disturbing fact that the University of California has the worst record of unfair labor practices of any California public employer. Since employees at the UC gained the right to have collective bargaining, there have been over 650 unfair labor practice charges brought against UC. Despite UC President Richard Atkinson's frequent personal assurances that he is endeavoring to improve the contentious state of employee relations at the University, the number of charges are increasing each year and the last two years represent the highest yearly totals ever.
The Coalition of University Employees exclusively represents 18,000 clerical employees at the nine UC campuses and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.