The American Federation of Teachers, on behalf of University of California librarians, has reached an impasse with the university after a two-year struggle for salary increases that the univerity claims it cannot afford.
Confidential discussions with a state-appointed mediator ‘mdash; provided by the State Mediation and Conciliation Service ‘mdash; are slated for March 24, an attempt to end a drawn-out negotiation process that began in 2007.
UC librarians, who demand that their salaries be raised to an ammount slightly less than those offered at California State University campuses, claim the university has failed to take the negotiations seriously.
‘If they would start bargaining, we might lower our original requests,’ chief mediator for UC librarians Mike Rotkin said. ‘We are not locked into a position. We want to see both sides moving toward each other, and that’s what was not happening. We want them to move before we continue to move.’
According to Rotkin, UC librarian salaries currently lag behind those of CSU librarians by roughly $10,000 to $15,000 annually.
Union representatives claim that this disparity has lowered the quality of the university’s libraries, because qualified librarians are harder to recruit and retain when offered better salaries elsewhere.
In January, the university offered the union a 1 percent increase in professional development funds, money used to support the costs of informational conferences and research, but no increase in librarian salaries.
UC officials have repeatedly claimed that the university lacks the funds to support the increased salaries, primarily due to a lack of state funding.
‘We’re going through a fiscal problem with all kinds of cuts from the state of California right now, but we’re trying to find a solution,’ said UC Director of Collective Bargaining Howard Pritas. ‘We’re going to work with the union as best we can.’
Rotkin said the university should withdraw the funds for the requested salary raises from its reserves, because it has roughly $6.5 billion in unrestricted funds that could be used to finance the increases.
‘The money [to fund the increases] is not coming from the state during this economic crisis,’ Rotkin said.
After rejecting the university’s initial 1 percent development funds offer, UC-AFT has continued to bargain for a more substantial increase.
Rotkin said librarians should be entitled to the same quality of negotiations as those offered to other unions, citing recent pay increases’ secured by UC police and hospital workers.
‘All we’re asking for is what some other unions have gotten,’ Rotkin said. ‘This isn’t unprecedented.’
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