The University of California will continue negotiating a new contract with the University Professional Technical Employees and Communications Workers of America union after its members walked off the job May 26 to protest what the union has called the university’s unfair labor practices.
Approximately 100 UPTE-CWA members, faculty members and students came out to protest at the Villa La Jolla Drive and Scholar’s Lane intersection and at Hillcrest Medical Center, according to UPTE-CWA San Diego Chapter President Carolan Buckmaster.
The university said it is dedicated to negotiations, even after the strike.
“Despite the union’s unlawful conduct, the university remains dedicated to achieving a fair contract for its employees, and will not allow UPTE’s tactics to interfere with negotiations,” the university stated in a press release. “The university will continue to invite UPTE to consider the use of a neutral state mediator to help facilitate agreement.”
The union rejected a May 20 university wage offer, which Buckmaster said fell below union expectations.
UCSD psychiatry department research assistant and UPTE-CWA California President Jelger Kalmijn said that the university’s offer did not include step increases, which are equivalent to merit pay, until January 2008.
“These step increases tell people we value you [when] you stay,” Kalmijn said. “Without them, it is a very strong disincentive for people. Two-thirds of my co-workers see no future working for the University of California.”
A campus supervisor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said she came out to the strike support her employees, whom she said are underserved by the university.
“A starter’s wage shouldn’t stay at the same wage for three years,” she said. “We all take our work seriously, and turnover affects the quality of our work.”
The turnover rate — the rate at which employees leave their job -— has reached “crisis” proportions with an annual rate of 33 percent, according to the union. It takes an average of six months to train new research associates, the supervisor said.
She also said that it is getting much more difficult to hire experienced research associates and other staff as a result of low starting wage.
Because many UC staff members do leave, the supervisor said that the university’s quality of research could drop.
“Experience counts for the quality of the work,” she said.
Although the university called the strike “unlawful,” the union does not fear legal recourse from its actions, according to Buckmaster.
The university had previously threatened to file a complaint with the California Public Employment Board, but in its latest press release, there is no mention of any forthcoming legal action.
“The university said it before,” Buckmaster said, regarding legal threats. “It is a ‘boy who cries wolf’ situation. Over time, it loses its effectiveness.”
The strike was a declaration of the situation’s magnitude, according to Buckmaster.
“We are hoping that the strike will help [the university] realize how serious things are,” Buckmaster said. “It was a statement saying that people are unhappy.”
Approximately 90 percent of union members attending the strike were new to walkouts, according to Buckmaster. That fact showed that the union is disciplined in its cause, she said.
“It brought cohesion to our members,” Buckmaster said. “[The union] covers many job titles and a lot of people who wouldn’t normally strike came out. I was impressed.”
Kalmijn said that low wages were creating a “slow erosion of university research,” which ultimately ends up hurting students.
“A prison guard makes 50 percent more than I do, and I have worked for the university for 16 years,” Kalmijn said. “I love my job, and I work hard, but there is no pay.”
University and UPTE representatives plan to meet in early June to continue bargaining.