| Coalition of University Employees (CUE) | 2855 Telegraph Ave., Suite #302, Berkeley, CA 94705 Contact CUE (510) 845-2221 (phone), (510) 845-7444 (FAX) |
Dear Mr. Secretary:
Last April 5, at the Department of Energy's Diversity Stand-Down, you declared, "If we have a workplace where employees feel threatened, unappreciated or excluded, we have a problem."
Secretary Richardson, with all respect, we have a problem.
There is a culture of discrimination festering at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) - a built-in system of pay inequity, glass ceilings and reprisal that not only hurts women and people of color, but ultimately the heart and soul of one of America's great research institutions.
Because the University of California manages LBNL for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and because you have devoted so much of your public life to the fight for working families, we are asking for your help.
We are the Coalition of University Employees (CUE) - the clerical workers at LBNL.
Nine out of ten of us are women. And three out of four of us who are stuck in the very lowest clerical pay classifications are African American, Latino, Asian or Pacific Islander.
Until things change, the bottom is exactly where we can expect to stay. Because unlike other Lab employees whose pay is adjusted according to scale, our pay is based on a totally arbitrary - and phony -- "merit" system that delivers little and guarantees nothing.
Worse yet, University management is using this 'merit' system to pay brand new workers substantially higher salaries than long-standing employees. In fact, the average pay increase for long-term employees during FY 98-99 (3.5%) sunk below the 4.8% rate of inflation in Northern California for the same period. That's some reward for loyalty.
No wonder clericals are leaving in droves, with turnover rates of more than 60% between 1997 and 1999. In a climate where complaints can bring even more reprisals and discrimination, quitting is often the only alternative.
As you know, earlier this year LBNL settled a $2.2 million lawsuit filed on behalf of African American and minority employees who were subjected to unlawful and involuntary genetic testing. This week, three more complaints against LBNL will be filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Meanwhile, at the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, problems and accusations regarding racial profiling, gender pay inequities and reprisals against whistleblowers appear to many to be part of a national crisis in government employee mismanagement.
With all of this in mind Mr. Secretary, we are asking you to step in and insist that the University of California resume, in good faith, the contract negotiations they broke off with CUE on April 6 - the day after the DOE Diversity Stand-Down. Specifically, we seek a new contract that will:
Together, Mr. Secretary, we can help make our National Laboratories good places to work - for everyone. We look forward to taking that journey with you.
Respectfully,
The Coalition of University Employees
Visit our web site at http://www.cueunion.org
Email to clericals@cueunion.org
Call us at 510-845-3447