UC lecturers accept terms of new contract

After three years of negotiations, a new contract between the
University of California lecturers’ union and the UC
administration was overwhelmingly approved and went into effect
this past week.

The new contract was approved by over 85 percent of the nearly
600 voting members of the lecturers’ unit of the University
Council-American Federation of Teachers and will run through June
30, 2006.

“In light of the significant funding constraints
we’re experiencing, we believe they are fair and balanced
agreements,” said Judith Boyette, the UC associate vice
president for human resources and benefits, in a statement when the
contract was put up for a vote.

Kevin Roddy, a UC Davis lecturer and president of the UC
lecturers’ union, said he was pleased with what the new
contract represents.

“For the first time, we’re being treated as
professionals,” Roddy said.

According to the UC Office of the President, about 1,600
lecturers work throughout the University of California system
““ making up about 12 percent of the UC’s total
13,000-member faculty.

UC lecturers teach 25 percent to 30 percent of all UC
classes.

The new contract raised the starting salaries for beginning
lecturers from $27,000 to $37,000. It also provides a retroactive
pay increase of 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent.

Other provisions include improved working conditions and money
for travel to attend conferences. In the past, lecturers have had
to share offices with other professors, and some did not have their
own phone line.

Though the new contract does not grant lecturers their own
offices, it does provide for more work space to be available to
them, along with telephone access.

However, the articles in the contract relating to job security
for lecturers with less than six years of experience were issues
that Roddy saw as shortcomings of the contract.

“The administration still wants a disposable
faculty,” he said, adding that he will continue to fight for
the rights of the lecturers with less than six years of
experience.

Larry Grobel, a lecturer for the English department at UCLA,
said he is teaching in the fall and spring quarter of next year and
hopes the new contract will provide him with better job
security.

Though Roddy is determined to improve conditions for lecturers
with less than six years of experience, the UC said it provides
better compensation for lecturers than other institutions.

At many other universities, lecturers are strictly temporary
employees without benefits, according to UCOP.

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