After two years of tense bargaining between the University of California and the Coalition of University Employees, a contract for UC clerical employees was agreed upon by the union on April 30, the last day for the union to decide whether to accept or reject the university’s proposal.
The union’s members voted 1,557 to 831 to accept a contract proposed by a state mediator that will grant UC clerical workers a 3.5 percent total increase in wages, far below the 15 percent originally requested.
The tentative contract agreement is expected to be ratified by both parties this week, and will last through 2004.
Union president Claudia Horning said that the union’s members were not satisfied but felt the need to move on at the present time.
“”I personally voted ‘No,’ but I’m not terribly surprised many voted ‘Yes,'”” Horning said. “”People understand that we’re going to keep bargaining.””
Areas of the contract that were better received by employees than the wage increase, according to Horning, were improvements in language regarding health, safety and layoffs.
“”My feeling was that this was the best we could get,”” said Margy Wilkinson, the union’s chief negotiator. “”However, I think the wage offer was really disgraceful and the university, in doing what they have done, has created ill will among its clericals.””
In a statement dated May 1, UC officials announced the union’s decision, ending by stating that “”[The University of California] continues to offer its 150,000 employees systemwide compensation and benefits virtually unmatched by any of its competitors.””
According to Horning, the UC system is below the California State University system in terms of its worth as an employer.
“”We’re underpaid in comparison and it’s a very similar employer,”” Horning said. “”It would be hard imagining UC getting more complacent than they already are right now.””
UC spokesman Paul Schwartz defended the university’s claim, citing the university’s current financial difficulties.
“”When you combine salary and benefits, we’re matching or well beyond those competitors,”” Schwartz said. “”But that’s a little different than points raised in negotiations about salaries, because that has to do with the market. Given where the market’s at, we’re at or beyond market.””
C.U.E.’s dues-paying members, whose number comprises about one-third of the 18,000 UC clerical employees it represents, voted on two different versions of the contract. The first proposal on the ballot differed from the second in that it did not offer merit-step increases, which offer employees certain salary increases in addition to cost of living adjustment increases. The latter won by a close margin.
“”People were concerned that if those merit increases went away, we might never get them back,”” Horning said. “”We don’t trust the university to restore them.””
Wilkinson had favored the first proposal because, she said, it treated all workers the same and would cost the university more money than the second.
Had the union voted to turn down the proposal, both parties would have had to decide whether to declare a formal impasse, and the union would have had to continue without a contract. The union had let its last contract expire in November 2001.
The union plans to go straight back to the bargaining table later in the month, where, in addition to the bargaining of wages, each party is granted an additional issue to discuss. According to Wilkinson, the union has not yet chosen what theirs will be.
“”Next to wages, I think the most pressing issue will be the increased cost of benefits,”” Wilkinson said. “”The university’s position at this point, which is a great concern to us, is that increased costs have to be passed down to and absorbed by clerical workers.””
According to Horning, the union now plans on trying to increase its membership and to pressure the university both within individual campuses and through wider publicity of labor issues.
As one bargaining term comes to a close and a new one opens, many campuses will choose new representatives from their local C.U.E. chapters to send to the bargaining table and decide how to work toward their next contract.
Tensions from the recent round of negotiations remain fresh for both the union and the university, within the past months, both parties filing charges of bad faith bargaining against each other, union members striking on five campuses, the university attempting to declare an impasse and being denied, and the union joining the San Jose Mercury News in a lawsuit against the university.
Horning expressed the hope that UC President Richard C. Atkinson would have tried to fix these difficulties between the two parties before the approaching the end of his career.
“”The message is supposed to be coming down from the top, and we don’t think it is,”” Horning said.
The union has continued to claim that the University of California has enough money to raise workers’ wages, while the university claims that with budget cuts this year, all its money has already been allocated.
Members of the UC lecturers union, who joined C.U.E. members in the five-campus strike, have yet to reach a contract with the university.
