The Union of Professional and Technical Employees, which has
nearly 10,000 members, is planning to hold a one-day strike at all
nine University of California campuses today.
“We are striking on Thursday fundamentally because there
is one-third of our staff that leave every year in turnover. UC
salaries are typically 30 percent behind what other companies
pay,” said Dominic Chan, the statewide director for UPTE.
The UC has taken precautions to make sure the strike will not
interrupt students, faculty and staff at all the UC campuses and
medical centers, said Noel Van Nyhuis, a spokesman for the UC
Office of the President.
The UC and UPTE have been in contract negotiations since May
2004.
UPTE believes its low salary rates are affecting the quality of
work its members are able to do in UC research labs.
“If one-third of our people leave every year, we are not
going to have stability, which impacts us finding a cure for
diseases,” Chan said. “We feel the university has
neglected research.”
UPTE’s decision to strike follows the American Federation
of State, County and Municipal Employees strike in April.
“To us, it shows that the service workers had to go out on
a one-day strike to get (the UC) to move. It’s a shame that
the UC only understands when we hold a strike,” Chan
said.
In the past, UPTE has only held limited strikes, which took
place at select campuses. This is the first system-wide strike.
Like AFSCME, UPTE is also asking for wage increases in its
contract negotiations.
The UC attributes its inability to increase workers’ wages
to the state budget cuts.
“There is no doubt that it has affected most people here
at UC, and we are pointing to the compact with the governor to
reverse that trend,” Van Nyhuis said.
Last year’s budget compact signed by Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger would provide provisions for salary increases for
all UC employees.
In his May budget revision, Schwarzenegger remained faithful to
that portion of the compact, but the state budget will not be
approved by the state Legislature until this summer.
The most recent contract that the UC offered UPTE employees last
week involves incremental wage increases each year for three years
““ all of which depend on the compact coming through, Van
Nyhuis said.
The contract proposed to UPTE by the UC is similar to the final
contract that was proposed and accepted by AFSCME, he added.
The UC believes UPTE is holding an illegal strike because UPTE
has not agreed to return to the bargaining table after the
UC’s repeated requests and its offer to call upon a state
mediator, Van Nyhuis said.
The UC is considering filing a complaint with the California
Public Employee Relations Board against UPTE’s planned
strike.
Cliff Fried, the executive vice president of UPTE/Communication
Workers of California and a researcher at UCLA for the past 32
years, said UPTE’s strike is legal because it has correctly
filed the decision to strike with the Public Employee Relations
Board.
UPTE is in a solidarity agreement with other unions representing
UC workers, and it hopes that other union members will respect its
picket lines, or at least join in UPTE’s rally, Fried
said.
AFSCME, one of the unions in the solidarity agreement, has said
it will respect UPTE’s strike.
“We are supporting them in every way we can; that means
coming to their rally and taking breaks,” said Nicole Moore,
an AFSCME organizer, though she said she cannot predict how many
AFSCME members will participate.
UPTE has planned to begin striking at 4 a.m. at the Jules Stein
Eye Institute, and will picket at locations across the UCLA campus
throughout the day.
The union will be holding a rally from 12 to 1 p.m. at Meyerhoff
Park.
If a contract is not reached after the strike, Fried said the
union will not hesitate to pursue further action.
“We are going on until they are ready to sit down with us
and come up with a reasonable, fair contract,” he said.
“We’re not asking for the moon, we’re just asking
for equity.”