With the possibility of more work stoppages in the future,
lecturers, clerical employees and nurses will strike this week at
UC Berkeley and the UC Office of the President in Oakland.
Lecturers and clericals plan to strike in protest of alleged
unfair bargaining practices committed by the university, while
nurses will strike to show sympathy for the clericals.
Lecturers have engaged in collective bargaining for more than
two years, while clericals have negotiated for 15 months. Major
issues in both negotiations are pay raises and job security.
Clericals and nurses will not work Monday through Wednesday.
Lecturers will only strike on Wednesday, though they will picket on
Monday and Tuesday when not in classes. Future strikes on other
campuses are still possible.
“We are thinking of (strikes) in the fall,” said
UCLA political science lecturer Rob Hennig.
Clericals at UC San Francisco also voted to strike on Aug. 22,
but will not strike next week because state law requires 10 days
notice before health care workers can strike.
The UC has responded to the strike notices by filing unfair
labor practice complaints against the Coalition of University
Employees, which is the clericals union, and the University of
California Council of the American Federation of Teachers, and is
in the process of filing a complaint against the California Nurses
Association. The university said the strikes are illegal because
negotiations have not yet reached an impasse.
“We consider any strike to be illegal because the
bargaining process … has not yet been exhausted,” said UC
press aide Paul Schwartz
Union leaders counter that strikes are legal if bargaining rules
are broken.
“What we’re doing is striking against several
(unfair labor practices) that have been filed,” said Kevin
Roddy, who will become president of UC-AFT Monday.
CUE leaders say their strike is a response to the UC’s
decision to present the union with both a conditional and
“last best final” offer on Aug. 7, with important
issues, such as pay increases and job security remaining
unresolved.
“(The proposal) indicated that they’re not going
into the bargaining process in good faith,” said CUE
statewide president Claudia Horning.
CUE claims the final offer was a unilateral declaration of
impasse, illegal under state law, and filed an unfair labor
practice complaint against the UC.
“(The offer was) a blatant violation of state labor
law,” said CUE executive board member Amatallah
Alaji-Sabrie.
Schwartz said at that point, the university was unable to offer
anything more.
“We had been negotiating with the union for 15 months and
had compromised every way we could,” he said.
A grievance shared by CUE and UC-AFT is that UC negotiators do
not have authority to make deals.
“(The UC has) never sent someone to the bargaining table
who has the authority to make a decision,” said Jeremy
Elkins, outgoing UC-AFT president.
The UC does not see anything improper in their negotiating
policies.
UC negotiators have full authority to represent the UC, said
Schwartz, adding that internal consultations between negotiators
and other UC officials is the normal bargaining procedure.
According to the UC-AFT, lecturers comprise 11 percent of the UC
faculty while teaching 46 percent of classes. The union hopes a
strike will show how important they are to the university.
Lecturers want the strike to “(educate) the public about
who does the work at the UC,” Elkins said.
The unions are not bothered by the UC’s claim that the
strikes are illegal.
“That’s sort of their photocopied response,”
said Roddy.
UC chief negotiator Gayle Cieszkiewicz sent a letter to Lindsay
informing CNA that because the UC views the CUE strike as illegal,
a nurse’s strike would be an “unprotected and unlawful
activity.” The letter also cautioned CNA about their current
contract which includes a no-strike clause.
The UC’s warnings do not bother CNA officials.
“I’m surprised, if the UC believes that the CUE
strike is illegal why they haven’t done anything to stop
it,” said Joe Lindsay, UC division director of the CNA.
Lindsay said that the no-strikes clause in CNA’s contract
only prohibits strikes over nurses issues, and does not prohibit
sympathy strikes.
The timing of the strikes is no accident. CUE and UC-AFT have
been working closely together.
“We communicate, collaborate and coordinate daily,”
Alaji-Sabrie said.
The unions will picket at the Berkeley campus and UCOP offices.
CUE has also scheduled a rally Tuesday in Westwood.