CUE NEWSLETTER NO. 5
Extra, Winter 1997
UC Clericals Move Ahead
"The half-way mark is behind us, but we still need 3,000 more signatures," according to CUE president, Elinor Levine, speaking of the petition drive CUE initiated in March 1996 to gather enough signatures from clerical workers to call for a union representation election. "We feel a sense of urgency now because our deadline to collect signatures is in March. I know there are many clericals at UC who intend to sign but just haven't gotten around to it yet. Now is the time."Signing either a petition or an individual card, like the one on page two, is the only way you can help call for a election to choose which organization, if any, will represent you. Signing the petition means you are asking for an election, for a chance to vote; it does not say how you will vote in an election, or even that you will vote at all. If enough signatures are collected by March 1997, the State of California PERB (Public Employment Relations Board) will administer an election by mailing a secret ballot to all 18,000 clerical employees at the University of California. The ballot will have three choices: CUE, AFSCME, and No Union.
If we do not succeed in gathering 7,000 signatures, we will not have an election, and AFSCME will continue to represent us as it has for the past thirteen years. Clericals have never needed good representation more than we do today -- our wages, benefits, working conditions, and job security are at stake.
We need a strong, effective organization that will fight for issues important to clerical employees. We think CUE can be that organization, but you do not necessarily need to support CUE to sign the petition. If all you want is a chance to consider your options and be allowed to cast a vote, you should sign this petition to call for a democratic election. Don't wait.
Don't give AFSCME your vote of confidence by turning your back on this campaign and on your co-workers who have already collected over 4,000 signatures. If all you do is sign a petition and talk to your co-workers about signing, you will be taking an important step toward better working conditions and a better life for all of us.
Go to Table of Contents
Together We Can...A New Year, A New Union
"Why join CUE? Why vote for CUE, or even sign the petitions and cards calling for an election? What good can a union do at UC?" These are valid questions, and we're glad to have a chance to address them.Why are some of our co-workers discouraged about unions? One reason is that since we elected AFSCME in 1983, we've seen disappointing results. For employees whose only union experience has been at UC, some have come to doubt that we can improve our situation through a union. But even clericals who are not yet convinced that CUE can do better than AFSCME, or who feel that they don't know enough about CUE to decide, are signing the petitions and encouraging their co-workers to do the same. They believe that after 13 years of AFSCME representation, it is time for clericals at UC to have a chance to vote again on the question of union representation, and they understand that this signature drive is the only way to bring about an election.
There are clericals on every UC campus working hard to collect signatures from their co-workers calling for a union election that would have CUE on the ballot. CUE members offer many reasons for their enthusiasm about building a new union for UC clericals. David Kessler, from the Berkeley campus, pointed to recent back pay awards that have been won by University Professional and Technical Employees (UPTE) for staff who had been wrongfully denied overtime pay -- awards that have ranged in size from $4,000 to $20,000 per person. Zoe Sodja, from UC Santa Cruz, mentioned the recent win by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) for UC lecturers, bringing them a pay raise over twice the size of that received by UC clericals this year.
Claudia Horning, at UCLA, noted that at the State University system, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has negotiated a contract in which each entire college campus constitutes one layoff unit, with the result that seniority acts as a genuine protection against the kind of arbitrary layoffs that happen at UC. Looking to other universities, Horning reminded us that the union representing clericals at Yale University has recently won contract language limiting management's ability to subcontract jobs.
The CUE activists mentioned above are keenly aware that these unions could not be so effective without the support of the employees being represented. "There is nothing mysterious about the process," said UC Irvine's Linda Salas, "a good union provides the employees a mechanism to determine their own priorities and support each others' efforts to obtain fair wages and working conditions. It's a principle as old as time, and it still holds true."
And at UC, there has been a recent wave of union growth. In just the last year, a vote by 3,700 white collar professionals followed the pattern set by 3,800 UC technical employees who had earlier voted for the union. The interns and residents at UC's teaching hospitals also voted for union representation.
Can clericals be part of this movement? "No doubt about it," says UC Davis CUE activist Janeene Fisher-Booth. "Together, we can!"