After months of negotiating with the University of California and four days of voting, on Thursday, the UC Academic Student Employees Unit ratified ““ by a 96 percent margin ““ the contract they had tentatively agreed to with the UC.
Both the UC and the United Auto Workers Union, the union representing the interests of the employees, which include teaching assistants, readers and tutors, reported that they were pleased with the new contract, which came after occasionally tense negotiations and the possibility of a statewide strike.
The contract’s major provisions include wage increases, family-friendly benefits, anti-discrimination provisions and workload protections.
“We are really excited about the contract, especially the areas where we have improved family friendliness,” said Daraka Larimore-Hall, a UAW bargaining team member and spokesman.
Among the family-friendly benefits included in the plan are childcare subsidies and paid short-term leave arrangements, which can be used in the event of sickness, disability or family emergency.
“The University is always looking for new ways to be more family friendly on all of our campuses,” said Nicole Savickas, Human Resources Communications coordinator at the UC Office of the President.
“We were happy to reach an agreement on some family-friendly leave positions for our (academic student employees),” she added.
In addition to these benefits, the contract mandates that student employees will receive, among other provisions, expanded health care coverage and will be protected against discriminatory policies on the basis of gender or pregnancy.
“(With this contract) we think we made tremendous progress toward a truly equal workplace,” Larimore-Hall said.
The contract also mandates that student employees will receive a 5 percent pay increase effective Oct. 1 and another raise of up to 5 percent one year later.
“In many areas, this contract sets exciting new precedents for workers’ rights and benefits both nationally and at the University of California,” said Meaghan Chadwick, a tutor and bargaining team member from UC Merced, in a statement.
However, the new contract, which will be effective until Sept. 30, 2009, did not come easily.
Negotiations for the new contract went hours past the expiration deadline for the old one.
According to Savickas, it was similar issues in all negotiations that held up the deal.
The UAW did not agree.
“The problem was that (the UC was) using lots of tactics to stall and drag things out. They were waiting until the last minute to bargain on a whole range of issues,” Larimore-Hall said.
It was the possibility of a strike by the employees that finally got a tentative contract signed, he added.
After the potential strike was averted when the two sides reached an agreement, the contract was distributed to academic student employees across the state to review and vote on.
Though 96 percent of voting employees were reported to have ratified the contract, the UAW declined to comment specifically on how many of the 12,000 academic student employees it represents actually exercised their right to vote.