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UCR: Employees have contract issues and claim unfair labor practices.
By LOUISE KNOTT AHERN
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE
September 24, 2002
RIVERSIDE - Clerical workers and lecturers at UC Riverside will walk away from their desks and classrooms for two days next month unless their unions can reach contract deals with the University of California. Local members of the Coalition of University Employees union and the UC-American Federation of Teachers have voted to authorize strikes, joining a statewide movement that began at UC Berkeley last month. No local strike dates have been set, said Rita Skinner, local representative to the Coalition of University Employees.
"We're finally at a point where we are just tired of fighting and realize that we're going to have to stand up and show we're important and powerful, and they have got to start listening to us," said Skinner. UCR plans to make sure classes go on as scheduled, said Tony Giorgio, UCR labor relations manager. He added that the university considers the strikes illegal.
"These two unions have not exhausted the bargaining process mandated by the collective bargaining statute," Giorgio said.
Half of the 290 members of the local clerical union voted over two days last week. Eighty-eight percent voted in favor of the strike, Skinner said. Votes were not counted until Monday.
UCR lecturers -- nontenured instructors represented by the teachers federation -- voted along with the statewide organization in early August to join the strike. Their members will picket alongside clerical workers. "We certainly expect that the majority of lecturers will not be in their classes those days," said Arlen Appleford, president of Local 1966 of the UC chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. "But we expect that in the long run students will be better taught by people who are better paid and have adequate working conditions."
Both unions say their strikes are over unfair labor practices, not just the sticking points in their contract talks.
Clerical workers have gone 15 months without a contract. The union has pushed for a 15 percent raise, but the UC system is offering 1.5 percent. Skinner said that amounts to a pay cut when a 10 percent increase in parking fees and an expected increase in health care premiums are factored in.
Lecturers, whose contract expired more than two years ago, are seeking greater job security. The university currently classifies them as at-will employees who can be fired at any time until they have at least six years of service.
Reach Louise Knott Ahern at (909) 368-9646 or lkahern@pe.com