By Timothy Kudo
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
tkudo@media.ucla.edu The Associated Students of UCLA could face
significant financial losses that might lead to cuts in student
services and raises if the movement to unionize many of its
non-student workers is successful. While both ASUCLA and the
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
““ the union seeking to represent the workers ““ expect a
contract eventually, the cost of benefits and higher wages for the
50 to 130 non-student workers could total anywhere from $500,000 to
more than $1 million.
“¢bull;A removal of a $50,000 subsidy given to student
government for the upkeep and maintenance of their office space.
“¢bull;A fee referendum students would have to vote on.
“¢bull;Cuts to merit increases for ASUCLA employees. Currently
they’re slated for 3 percent though each percentage point
decrease would save $100,000.
“¢bull;A change in estimations for next year’s budget
could change the projections. Conservative estimates could be
liberalized though this doesn’t guarantee any extra earnings.
Source: Associated Students of UCLA
“The board feels they need to balance (the fiscal)
question with the social responsibility question and somewhere in
that balance is room for some fiscal lenience,” said ASUCLA
Executive Director Patricia Eastman. Today, the ASUCLA Board of
Directors will meet to decide whether to ask the UC Office of the
President to recognize the union. Union organizer Brian Rudiger
said many workers have been left without retirement prospects,
little job security, “poverty wages,” and without the
backing of a union to help them with workplace grievances. ASUCLA
officials agree ““ but can the association afford it?
The cost At minimum, the association may cut a $50,000 subsidy
to student government budgets, all or part of a 3 percent merit
increase to ASUCLA employees and the elimination of a $60,000
increase in pools that fund student programs, according to Eastman.
If the price of unionization reaches $1 million, ASUCLA Finance
Director Rich Delia said the cost may be so great that, “I
don’t think we can do it.” The cost per worker, per
year, to bring them under a union contract is $9,000 to $10,000,
Eastman estimates. While most discussion on all sides is about how
to recognize the union, little has been done to determine the
fiscal implications that, even on the low end of $500,000, she
doesn’t know how to pay for. “I haven’t really
sharpened my pencil and done the required financial
analysis,” Eastman said. The cost doesn’t account for
certain things that may still be negotiated, such as retroactive
pension, which Rudiger said the union would seek for employees who
have worked for a long time and are near retirement. “Most of
us know that Social Security doesn’t mean retirement,”
he said. Already, student government officials have been told not
to expect the $60,000 increase they were promised for the waiver
pool and interaction funds, Delia said. They have also been told to
account for the end of a $50,000 subsidy given for maintenance and
upkeep of their office space, though they will continue not to be
charged rent, he added. That would account for little of the
difference, but the decrease in merit pay, which was slated for 3
percent but has already been halved, according to Delia, could
account for up to $300,000. A fee referendum that could make up the
entire cost if approved by students is being as “seriously
considered as any of the other options,” Eastman said. Next
year, a student fee of $51 given to ASUCLA will end. That would
make room for a new fee of anywhere from a few dollars to $25 to
account for the remaining shortfall. This could be difficult to
approve, since undergraduate elections are over for this year,
though an increase in programming fees, proposed by several of the
Undergraduate Student Association Council commissions, could lead
to a special election. The association could also try and get a
mandatory fee implemented without student approval. Any increase
would require approval by the UC Board of Regents. In light of the
fee’s end, ASUCLA would only have about $1.14 million to make
up for the increased costs, though that money is slated for
necessary building improvements in the student union and to build
up a cash reserve required by ASUCLA policy, Delia said.
The past Several years ago, ASUCLA went nearly bankrupt. After a
bailout by the chancellor, the association approached its business
more conservatively, adopting a cash reserve policy in the past
year to ensure that it could withstand financial losses. Dipping
into that fund, which is short of the $8.5 million called for in
the policy, would postpone that mark for some time, but without
added revenue, would only be a short-term solution, Delia said.
While union organizers say the treatment of these workers has been
a problem since 1995, the problems are began years earlier. A large
part of the association’s mission is to provide students with
jobs on campus with flexible hours, but in the early ’90s,
ASUCLA began having trouble finding student staffing and had to
resort to temporary workers. ASUCLA finally decided to subcontract
out the work to a temp agency in 1995. Earlier this year, however,
student staffing increased by 200 after the board of directors
voted to increase wages in preparation for a rise in minimum wage.
But non-student workers are still needed. “The reality is
that we haven’t been able to get enough students for many
years,” Eastman said. Just months after that increase,
however, the union came in April to seek representation. But with
job security a top issue, the flexibility of temporary workers to
deal with fluctuations in student staffing may be limited.
“We don’t see it, and the workers don’t see it,
as something that’s in opposition to student
employment,” Rudiger said. But Eastman points out if the
amount of money ASUCLA would have to pay unionized temporary
workers went instead to student wages, it could increase student
earnings by as much as a couple dollars an hour, potentially
leading to an increase in student staffing that would eliminate, or
substantially lessen the need for temporary workers, Eastman said.
Rudiger sees this as nothing more than “pure
speculation” and questions their track record of recruiting
students. “They’ve never been able to do it,” he
said. The union understands the association’s unique role on
campus in serving and belonging to students, and many of these
issues would be negotiated later, Rudiger said. “What there
needs to be is a commitment to work it out,” he said.
Numerous students have shown support for the workers, leading to a
USAC resolution passed unanimously Tuesday supporting their cause.
Francisco Garcia, an urban planning graduate student and organizer
of the students supporting the workers, said financial issues
shouldn’t be of concern and that he would personally support
a fee referendum to pay for it. “I personally think that at
this point, those things they are throwing around are
excuses,” he said of the possible cuts to students.
The decision Adding further complications to ASUCLA management
is that while they’ll be footing the bill, the final decision
on the worker’s status will not be up to them. UCOP handles
all university labor issues and is currently deliberating on the
status of the workers. Much of the discussion recently has been
between UCLA, UCOP and the union, though ASUCLA hopes to be
included in further discussion. Since UCOP handles all labor
disputes in the system, ASUCLA is stuck between the union and the
university and has no formal authority in the process.
“We’re squeezed, aren’t we?” Eastman said.
Said Rudiger: “The board has basically said that they do not
have the authority independently to enter into labor contracts.
“They basically have passed the buck.” After repeated
calls, UCOP officials were too busy to comment.
The risk With several hundred thousand dollars at stake, the
hopes of the association that it can recognize the union and work
out the details of a contract later could prove risky for an
organization still recovering from a financial disaster.
“I’m fearful that once the goods are achieved, that
respect for ASUCLA’s uniqueness may erode. I hope not,”
Eastman said. Said board of directors member Jared Seltzer:
“We can support the workers to begin with, and then break
down into the nitty-gritty.” He added that it’s too
early to assume the worst, saying “the difference between
$500,000 and $1 million is a pretty big gray area.” While
students, the association and the union all say they want the
workers represented, the specifics of how this works out will test
the ability of the organization to continue to remain autonomous
and financially self-sufficient. “One tries to look at all
the ramifications of a decision and make the best decision they
can,” Eastman said.