By Michael Levine
Daily Bruin Contributor
After two years of negotiations, the UC and the Coalition of
University Employees union have tentatively agreed on their
first-ever contract.
While CUE members didn’t get the 21 percent raise they
said was necessary to bring their wages up to market averages, they
did win a 7.8 percent increase, to be paid out in roughly 2.5
percent increments over three years.
CUE is the largest UC union, representing 18,000 clerical
employees.
Other gains CUE reported include a less restrictive grievance
process, overtime compensation, and a limitation on background
credit checks to employees whose jobs require them to handle
money.
As the tentative contract expires Sept. 30, 2001, CUE and UC may
soon have to hash out a longer-term contract.
“We understand that in another six months we have to start
all over, so we can’t really rest on our laurels,” said
Kathlynne Kasten, a CUE organizer at UCLA.
UC officials said they look forward to reaching a final deal
with CUE.
“We’re very pleased with the contract settlement.
We’re hoping to move to ratification,” said UC
spokesman Dan Kier.
Kasten, though pleased to have reached this stage of
negotiations after going years without a contract, expressed
reservations about negotiating with the university.
She said the UC bargaining team was uncooperative in
negotiations at first, and didn’t begin to treat CUE demands
seriously until the union filed unfair labor practice charges with
the state.
According to Kier, the university was not being intentionally
intransigent.
Meanwhile, another campus union, the University Professional and
Technical Employees, representing 10,000 employees UC-wide, has yet
to conclude its contract negotiations with UC.
“The key stumbling block right now is UC’s inability
to deal fairly with us over raises,” said Cliff Fried,
executive vice president of UPTE.
Kier disagreed and said the UC was coming up with new programs
to increase salaries.
“We’re continuing to push for a wage augmentation
program specifically aimed at our lower paid employees,” Kier
said.
Fried also said by not hiring a sufficient number of staff, the
university wasn’t adequately preparing for the influx of
students expected in the next 10 years.
“In the last 20 years, there has been a doubling of worker
productivity, yet no pay increases nor new employees,” Fried
said.
But the UC plans to hire more staff and faculty, Kier said.
“If they have a problem with the workload, we have
procedures in place to take care of it,” he said.
To press its message to UC officials, Fried said UPTE was
planning demonstrations and sit-ins across the state at the end of
November.
Contract negotiations with UPTE, Kier said, were complicated by
the union’s organization into three separate units of
technical workers, health care professionals, and researchers.
“I think the university has put up good wage packages for
those folks,” Kier said. “They’re on different
negotiating schedules, but as soon as one puts the agreement to
their members for ratification, and UC approves, we can
settle.”
Kier noted that in the past two weeks UC reached contract
settlements with other unions ““ the Federated University
Police Officer Association and the American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees technical and service employee
units.
CUE members plan to rally at noon on Wednesday at Westwood
Plaza, then march to the UC Regents meeting at Covel Commons.
Kasten said she was hoping for a large turnout of UCLA clerical
employees at the rally.
“I’ll be beating on my pan with my spoon, trying to
be as noisy as possible,” Kasten said.