UC officially proposes furloughs to CUE

Since the Regents approved the special-powers act for UC President Yudof, there have been many questions from CUE members. Here is the CUE bargaining team's official statement.

President Yudof has stated in his July 16^th letter to the UC Community: For union-represented employees, implementation of the plan will be subject to collective bargaining agreements and all applicable laws. Discussions with union representatives, encouraging them to adopt the plan, will begin immediately. Yudof letter text

On Friday, July 17th, the UC Team's Chief Negotiator, Peter Chester informed the CUE bargaining team that it did not have a proposal for the CUE Bargaining Team at this time. The CUE Team did question the UC team about the elements of J2, the furlough plan as it was approved by the Regents on Wednesday, July 15th. To our utter amazement, (we had not seen this detail in any of the UC publications or announcements) the furlough days will be PAID DAYS off! That is, we understood from the university team, the University would achieve its salary savings by implementing a slight wage reduction for all hours worked at the commencement of the furlough period. In exchange for this salary reduction are "paid furlough days" to be negotiated on a campus-by-campus basis. It was further explained to us that each location, campus and or medical center will be given the flexibility to determine how it wants to implement the furloughs.

Later a letter from Lynn M. Boland, Executive Director of Human Resources, was sent to CUE's state wide president, Khixaan Obioma-Sakhu, and CUE's chief negotiator, Amatullah Alaji-Sabrie, after 5pm on July 17th proposing the university salary reduction and furlough plan for the Clerical and Allied Services unit. Ms. Boland's letter also indicated "If the scenarios listed do not represent a plan you wish to agree upon, the University is prepared to meet with you regarding any alternate plans you propose that will yield the same or similar cash savings as the Salary Reduction and Furlough Plan adopted by The Regents."

The CUE Bargaining Team and Executive Board are in consultation regarding these developments and in the process of developing alternatives to best protect the interests of the Clerical and Allied Services bargaining unit. We encourage you to go to the link for item J2 referenced above to see the details of the Plan that the university has provided thus far.

You will soon be receiving additional information and asked to participate in surveys to ascertain your thinking and suggestions about these matters.

On July 15, 2009 the Regents voted yes to Agenda Item J1, which gave UC President Yudof the authorization to declare a financial emergency and yes to J2, which is Mr. Yudof's plan to subject UC to staff salary reductions and work furloughs. The complete text of J1 and J2, which currently are only applicable to unrepresented staff and management can be read at the Regents page:
J1 proposal — a PDF
J2 proposal — a PDF .

CUE Bargaining Team

Khixaan Obioma-Sakhu, Santa Barbara
Alexis Talpash, Riverside
Stephanie Dorton, Berkeley
Susan Ervin, Los Angeles
Dorthea Stewart, San Diego
Mary Higgins, San Francisco
Dan Lewis, Davis
Helen Jefferson, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
Dianna Sahhar, Irvine
Kevin Parks, Santa Cruz
Amatullah Alaji-Sabrie, Chief Negotiator
Robert Bonsall, CUE attorney

From last year...

THE TROUBLE WITH REGENTS

Representatives of the UC unions converged on the Board of Regents meeting, Wednesday November 19th. The Regents are the university's governing board, controlling the operation and budget of ten campuses with about 191,000 students and a budget for fiscal 2008-09 of $18.1 billion.

To provide input at their public meetings, they allow 30 minutes for public comment, with each person getting one minute. They permit free speech, but they don't listen. Why should they? Of the 26 regents, 18 are appointed by the governor for 12-year terms, one student representative is appointed by the regents for a one-year term, the rest are ex-officio members, such as the governor and other politicians, as well as the UC president and president of the Alumni Associations of UC.

chart source: University of California

A limited number of persons may sit in with the Regents during the public comment portion. Since there were speakers from several unions, including CUE, from many campuses, including Berkeley and Irvine, many of us were directed to a "room" that was set up for the overflow. The "room" turned out to be loudspeakers set up outside of the Community Center. We could hear and cheer, but the only seats were cold concrete benches.

Several of the comments were incisive and moving, except to the Regents, who sat bored and irritated. How dare anyone question their wisdom!

The university has vowed to provide 0% raises in the current fiscal year. A glance at their budget shows nearly $169 million for "faculty and staff compensation increases" of 5%. CUE and the other unions are demanding our workers receive market rate pay. Seems reasonable.

Compensation is important because the work we do is important. It's an issue of respect and of continuity. Kevin Rooney is a UCSF Sr. Environmental Health & Safety Technician and an UPTE chief negotiator. The crowd went wild when he said:

You, the Regents, are responsible for the delay in finding cures for cancer. You, the Regents are responsible for the delay in finding a cure for AIDS. You, the Regents are responsible for the countless delays in finding cures for Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, mad cow disease, leukemia and hundreds of other diseases.

When a researcher leaves to find better pay & benefits elsewhere, it takes up to 2 years to train their replacement. This is time and money wasted. All because you find us expendable & replaceable.

There are built-in wage increases to the research grants for our people. UC has the money. Endowments exceed $7 Billion per year. You have the money. Management gets market pay, what about us? You have the money. Vote to make the research staff, and ALL STAFF a priority so that we may find cures to AIDS, Alzheimer’s, leukemia, and cancer!

You have the choice to make research a priority by stopping the 30% turnover in the Research & Technical units that do the research to find cures for all of these diseases. Make your priority to provide market pay for research! Make the staff a priority & say ‘NO’ to 30% turnover.

Research reveals UC has an endowment of just over $9.6 billion, the seventh largest in the United States of America.

The day before this meeting, the Phoenix Project for UC Democracy kicked off, according to an article in the Daily Planet. One panelist, Berkeley City Councilmember-elect Jesse Arreguin said, "The issue isn't that we're not doing enough to be heard. The issue is that the university isn't listening."

The group is pushing for a systematic change to make the regents and the administration more accountable. Senator of the Associated Students of UC (ASUC), Christina Oatfield told the group that the adminiistration works harder to "frame" an issue than to deal with the issue itself. In her case, it's the skyrocketing student fees.

In our case, it's flat salaries that ignore inflation and other increases, such as parking, insurance and retirement.

Know Your Regent

Gould

Regent Russell Gould is Senior Vice President of Wachovia Bank. He provides leadership in business development and strategic partnerships as Senior Managing Director of Wachovia Portfolio Services, formerly Metropolitan West Securities, which he joined in 1996.