By Sabrina Singhapattanapong
Daily Bruin Reporter
[email protected]
Up to 3,200 University of California lecturers may strike this
fall if a new contract is not reached, said the University Council
of the American Federation of Teachers.
After nearly two years of unsuccessful bargaining between the
UC-AFT and university officials, UCLA lecturers’ contract
negotiator Robert Hennig today will call on lecturers to form a
strike steering committee at a meeting in the Faculty Center at 4
p.m.
The existing contract, which expired June 30, 2000 and is still
in effect, fails to meet lecturers’ demands for greater job
security, higher salaries and more funding for research and
professional development, Hennig said.
Lecturers, who teach about 50 percent of the undergraduate
population, are usually hired for a few years and then let go, he
said.
The existing contract allows lecturers who have worked at least
six years to seek possible employment for three more years, said
Miki Goral, treasurer of the UC-AFT.
But departments can turn down lecturers’ requests for
continued employment if there no longer exists a need for them, she
added.
UC spokesman Paul Schwartz said the UC is committed to providing
a constant flow of new ideas, people and perspective to
students.
Lecturers are demanding that salary increases and
performance-based pay systems be revised, according to the UC-AFT
Web site.
Lecturers are entitled to two merit-based reviews in their
career, but upon receiving a positive merit review, there is no
requirement for pay increases based on those reviews, the Web site
said.
While some graduate students receive reimbursements for their
research or for attending professional conferences, UC lecturers do
not receive funding for such professional development, Hennig
said.
Though Hennig said a UC-wide strike may occur if
lecturers’ demands are not met, the university feels that
issues “don’t get resolved on the street corner; they
get resolved on the bargaining table,” Schwartz said.
The UC presented an updated contract proposal to UC-AFT
negotiators last week and are waiting for the union’s
response.
“Our proposals continue to be sensitive to the
union’s stated priorities,” Schwartz said.
Both parties will continue bargaining Friday.