After two months of negotiations with the university, the University of California American Federation of Teachers agreed to participate in the UC-wide furloughs this month.
The union represents approximately 420 librarians across the UC system.
The contract requires all union members to take mandatory unpaid days off for one year, a system that was implemented in light of the decrease in state funding to the UC.
The program is designed to save a total of $184 million to offset the $1 billion state funding shortfall, according to a statement from the UC Office of the President, Mark Yudof.
Under this agreement, librarians who are part of the American Federation of Teachers will be subject to the same furlough plan as the rest of the UC campuses, said Bill Quirk, field representative of the union.
This plan consists of various levels of pay cuts based on salary, said Steve Montiel, UCOP spokesman.
“I can’t speak for the union, but we heard from union representatives who wanted to take part in the furloughs that they wanted to participate to know what to expect,” Montiel said.
He also referenced a statement from Dwaine Duckett, UC vice president for human resources, in which Duckett thanked the union for its “thoughtful, rational, and responsible approach” in consideration of the furloughs.
The furlough negotiations came in the midst of a nine-month discussion about salary for compensation, Quirk said.
He added that the union then had one or two meetings with the university to discuss their options.
Miki Goral, a reference and instructional librarian in the College Library, was part of the negotiation team and said that there was a general consensus among librarians to choose the furlough system over the alternative.
The 39-year veteran of the library said that the UC told union negotiators that the alternative solution would be across-the-board reductions in pay or temporary layoffs to achieve the same savings that the furlough program would provide.
However, she said that in spite of the tough economic climate, there are no layoffs for UCLA librarians on the horizon.
Quirk said that one concern among librarians is the possible increase in workload, based on the reduction in hours and the fact that librarians who leave will not be able to be replaced.
“Librarians are already underpaid, and in negotiations, we didn’t get anywhere for that. Now on top of that, we have the furloughs,” Quirk said.
However, some librarians remain optimistic.
“None of us are thrilled to be furloughed, but we did the best we could,” said Lise Snyder, collection management coordinator for the College Library.
“We’re still in the middle of an uncompleted contract negotiation. …
Otherwise, we’ll see what happens with that, and maybe if we’re successful, we can offset the damage from the furlough program.”