Wage and safety complaints prolong AFSCME’s dispute with UC

The original version of this article contained information that was unclear and has been changed. See the bottom of the article for additional information.

The University of California has offered wage increases and an unprecedented freeze on health care rates to its largest and most vocal employee union, but the union said it still refuses to accept its offers because it wants a higher wage increase for its members.

In a rare move, UC officials disclosed several details this week about its ongoing labor negotiations with the service workers of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees 3299 union. AFSCME 3299 represents about 8,300 UC service workers, which include employees such as gardeners, custodians, bus drivers and food service workers. It also represents about 13,000 patient care workers.

Labor negotiations between the UC and AFSCME 3299 have been characterized by distrust on both sides and have stretched on for more than 18 months.
On Monday, University officials said they would offer AFSCME service workers a 3 percent wage increase this year and an additional 3.5 percent wage increases for the following three years. The offer also includes a freeze on health care rates, which it has never offered to any other union, said Dianne Klein, a UC spokeswoman.

Klein said these wage increases are higher than what other UC employees have received and claimed that AFSCME service workers already earn above-market wages. She added that AFSCME service employees, over the course of their previous three-year contract, ended up receiving a more than 22 percent wage increase.
But AFSCME 3299 officials said these wage increases are not enough for its members, many of whom receive food stamps and other forms of welfare.

These wage increases would not be as high as those that some other unions have received, said AFSCME spokesman Todd Stenhouse.

“In the lives of our members, there are real consequences here. In the UC community there are real consequences, and that is why we have made fair wages and safe staffing high priorities in negotiations,” Stenhouse said.

The UC and AFSCME are also stuck on the issue of safe staffing. Stenhouse claimed its members are overworked in understaffed workplaces and that AFSCME 3299’s service worker injuries have increased by about 20 percent over the past five years.

Klein insisted the UC complies with all safety policies concerning staffing levels, and it would have been fined if it did not comply with these policies.

The debate over higher wage increases and AFSCME’s complaint for safe staffing are currently the two main issues holding up labor talks.

The University usually does not disclose details of labor negotiations to the media because doing so does not help the two parties reach an agreement, Klein said. She said such details belong only at the bargaining table.

But Klein said the UC decided to release a statement now because she thinks AFSCME has been publicizing misleading information.

Klein said the University also wanted to disclose these details because AFSCME will vote next month on whether or not to hold a third strike in less than a year. She said AFSCME’s last two strikes, which took place at UC medical centers and other campus sectors like dining, cost the University more than $30 million.

“We felt it incumbent upon us to put out the facts,” Klein said. “The two strikes … endangered patients and engendered distrust and really hindered any progress toward reaching an agreement.”

AFSCME 3299 will not accept the 3.5 wage increases offered by the University because it claimed only 1.5 percent of those increases is an across-the-board hike that would apply to all its service members. Stenhouse said the rest are step increases, or increases based on experience, that apply to only certain members.

Stenhouse said AFSCME 3299 is demanding that the University give them comparable across-the-board wage increases.

Klein said she does not know whether some of the proposed 3.5 percent increases are step increases, but that step increases apply to any employee who is not earning their maximum salary.

The University also cannot give larger wage increases than already offered because it has to keep a tight budget, Klein added.

“We only have a certain amount of money,” Klein said. “The University as a whole has been under severe budget constraints. We have treated AFSCME more than fairly and, in some cases, much better than other unions.”

The two parties have made some leeway in negotiations. AFSCME agreed to the UC’s offer concerning pension, a similar deal the University made with a union representing UC nurses in which AFSCME members hired after July 1 of last year would pay higher pension contribution rates.In an interview with the Daily Bruin, Stenhouse called the freeze on health care rates “a step in the right direction.”

Compiled by Kristen Taketa, Bruin senior staff.

Clarification: According to an AFSCME spokesperson, the union is demanding that the UC give comparable wage increases to all employees under the union.