After 18 months of labor contract negotiations, the University
of California declared it is at an impasse with its clerical
workers’ union.
The UC informed the Coalition of University Employees last week
at their last bargaining session that it didn’t think any
further movement could be achieved through normal bargaining
procedures.
The UC hopes this move will facilitate a speedy resolution, said
UC press aide Paul Schwartz.
Though the UC wants the clericals’ union to join in mutual
declaration of impasse ““ it would speed up the process
““ the union doesn’t agree the two entities have reached
a negotiations dead-end yet, said CUE President Claudia
Horning.
The clericals’ union is confident the Public Employment
Relations Board, the state agency that oversees the UC labor
relations, will see the UC has been bargaining in bad faith due to
a number of reasons, including unfulfilled information requests to
purposefully stall bargaining, and won’t confirm impasse,
Horning said.
The UC has no intention of changing their position on the
remaining issues, and instead wants to impose their last contract
offer on clericals, she added.
CUE representatives have said strikes are imminent if the last
contract proposal is imposed, and the university maintains that any
strike prior to a completion of impasse proceedings is illegal.
The university filed a formal “unfair labor
practice” complaint with PERB for CUE’s strikes earlier
this quarter at six other campuses. Both parties have filed these
complaints against each other. Thirty are currently pending, with
more filed by CUE against the UC, said Les Chrisholm, a PERB
representative.
The UC’s next step after ending table negotiations is to
send a formal declaration of impasse to the relations board. The UC
plans to send its impasse declaration to PERB sometime this week,
Schwartz said.
When it is received, PERB Labor Relations Specialist Jerilyn
Gelt said she has five days to confirm the request. If she does,
the state agency will appoint a mediator to help the two groups
arrive at a resolution. If the mediator is unsuccessful, then it is
up to the two groups to resolve their contract differences
themselves, she added.
The impasse procedure is outlined by state law and gives UC
employees the right to use bargaining as the sole means of
determining wages, hours and working conditions. If the
state’s help is exhausted without both parties arriving at a
solution, then the university can impose its last contract
offer.
Both groups agree that wages are the key issue separating the
two groups, though job security and health and safety issues are
also factors.
UC clerical wages have consistently been under market. Clerical
salaries systemwide lagged behind the labor market by 18.8 percent
in 2000, according to the UC.
During negotiations that year, CUE had T-shirts printed that
said “On Fridays I work for free,” Horning said.
The UC said it has made measurable progress toward bringing
compensation in line with the labor market. UC data suggests
clerical wages are currently about 8 to 10 percent below market
value.
However, UC clericals appear to be near market when health
benefits and retirement packages are figured into total
compensation, Schwartz said.
The union is also upset because their last contract had
provisions for merit increases, pay raises each year based on
excellent supervisor evaluations, and the current one does not,
Horning said.
The UC’s current proposal only provides a cost of living
adjustment, the same that all UC employees receive.
“The UC is not opposed to merit increases. It depends on
if funding is available,” Schwartz said adding that the UC
can’t offer them now because all university funds are 100
percent committed to other areas.