After more than three years of negotiations, the University of California reached a five-year agreement Monday on wages and benefits for more than 12,500 university clerical staff, a deal which will be effective through November 2016.
Under the new contract between the university and the Coalition of University Employees — the union that represents most of the university’s clerical staff — staff will receive incremental wage increases until fiscal year 2015-16 and increase contributions to the UC Retirement Plan.
A tentative agreement between the two parties was reached Nov. 4, and union members voted on the agreement from Nov. 18 to Dec. 9, according a Monday press release from the UC Office of the President.
“We’re really happy that we’ve reached an agreement and that it’s for five years,” said UC spokesperson Dianne Klein. “I know union members were eager to get a contract because their wages were paid to their old contract. So, in other words, they haven’t gotten a pay increase since 2008.”
The new contract — which had been in negotiations since May 2008 — grants clerical staff a retroactive 3 percent wage increase for the 2011-12 fiscal year. Staff wages will continue to increase by 3 percent for each of the next three fiscal years from 2012-15 with a 2 percent increase for the final contract year of 2015-16, according to the press release.
Under the contract, clerical employees will increase contributions to the underfunded UC Retirement Plan at the same rate as the general university employee population, contributing 3.5 percent of their pay retroactive to July 1, 2011. Beginning July 1, 2012 staff will contribute 5 percent of their pay to the fund, and the contribution will increase to 6.5 percent starting July 1, 2013 as part of a systemwide effort to stabilize the underfunded pension fund through increased employee contributions.
“I think the entire contract was difficult,” Klein said. “[Union] members had to agree to pay more for pension benefits, which they hadn’t been doing before, so that’s a tough call. Also, they’ve gotten a 3 percent wage increase, which is more than certainly the nonrepresented employees.”
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If they studied something useful in school, they wouldn’t be clerical staff. I mean, religion has been declining for such a long time, who thinks they really need that many clerics? FAIL. If instead they studied stress analysis of baskets, they could analyze the kooky silly basket case study I posted about below. Stan doesn’t need a CLERIC – in DND he’s a Paladin, level 20!
Look, the troll is back, and he’s forging handles as usual.
“My God, how I wish someone would sock you in your blowhard jaw.” – I’m sure you would, consrcunts. It must be pretty sad to know that you can’t win an argument based on facts or logic, and need to use force and violence to silence those with whom you disagree with. But then again, that’s exactly how the Left works. They can’t attend meetings without shouting down speakers. They can’t have protests without engaging in physical confrontations with the police and others. They can’t even hold the attention of others based on the validity of their arguments, so instead they engage in goofy antics to make spectacles of themselves. Last but not least, they can’t even win debates or arguments with others, so they lie, distort, misrepresent the opinions of others, and use disruption and confusion (such as hijacking other people’s handles) to misrepresent the statements and opinions of their opponents.
Thanks for providing all those examples of how the American Left is morally and intellectually bankrupt, and how leftists are incapable of acting like intelligent, responsible, rational adults in a public forum. Not that I didn’t know that already – I figured that when I witnessed the left-wing basket-cases at Cal years ago – but it’s good that you have just confirmed what I have been telling people on line for the last 15 years. :O)
15 years of idiocy to rival Fox News. Sarah Palin, Michele Bachman, Orly Taitz must be so proud. Go pleasure yourself while looking at their autographed pictures, Stan. Use your Right hand.
Well, once again it’s clear that lefties can’t respond with particulars. Instead, they foam and flail, hoping to pass it off as something of substance. But once again, thanks for reminding us that leftists aren’t even remotely close to being intellectuals, merely frothing malcontents.
Oh Orly. Orly. Orly. ORRRRRLYYYYYYYY.
All this foaming and flailing on my filthy Left hand. Ugh.
Stan it’s odd you talk about the distance of someone else to being an “intellectual”. Even when you claim to speak as an engineer you show your disdain for any of the subtlety and beauty of fields outside of engineering. Engineers must work in a society built of humans too; it is clear you lack the skills to motivate, inspire, or lead those. Your only tool is to put people down, or shout your opinion louder, then repeat your favorite words again (lefty, foam, flail, froth).
Stan’s other favorite words have an alliterative use of “fff” in them. Some more favorites: pho, fife, Fffytch, and faufreluches. And fffffff Orly. I frapped some froth on my leffffft hand. Frell.
I don’t wish someone would sock you in the jaw because you’re a conservative, Stan. I wish someone would sock you in the jaw because you’re an asshole. There is a difference, though it’s not one that I expect you to understand.
Ooh, ooh, ooh, look at the oh so tolerant progressive liberal. Life must be a bitch when you can’t shut up everyone who disagrees with you, right, little child?
Please continue demonstrating this “maturity” of yours, Tony. It’s a fascinating phenomenon.
LOL, the state just slashed funding by another $100 million, and Yudof hands out retroactive pay raises to overpaid, underperforming union members?? UC Berkeley could fire half the CUE employees and no one would notice.
A lot of clerical workers are college graduates, like you hope to be someday. You don’t understand now, but you’ll be in the same boat if you’re lucky. Why you generally call clericals “overpaid” is just a point of your ignorance. Executives are being overpaid, but the folks who do the real work for them deserve to be paid well too. If UC fired half the CUE employees, you would not get another book on time from the library and other systems would degrade as well. Take it all for granted now, but when you don’t get your little needs met, don’t say I didn’t tell you that you asked for it. So, you must be really hapy about renting a mansion for Mark Yudoff for $11,000 per month and you’re tickled about clerical workers living worse than students. ESFOAD!
[A lot of clerical workers are college graduates, like you hope to be someday.}
Those of us who graduated from college with useful degrees (math, science, engineering) didn’t have to resort to taking clerical jobs, which were traditionally staffed by high school graduates.
Right, those engineers don’t at all need the people who hired them, do their payroll, negotiate insurance plans, coordinate schedules with other companies, pay the utilities bills, file and maintain important documents. Find me a single clerical job at a business that doesn’t require a B.A. in the job description.
Dear Stan imposter: many of these clerical jobs do NOT require a 4-year degree. The reason that some employers DO prefer people with 4-year degrees in places like California is due to the fact that being a high school graduate here isn’t necessarily any guarantee that one knows how to read or write. I acknowledge that you can’t be functionally illiterate and perform clerical, but that’s a far cry from requiring a 4-year degree to file papers.
I don’t think he’s saying that the jobs require 4 year degrees, skill wise, but just that the job descriptions require them for the reasons you mention.
Hey YOU’RE the Stan Imposter. I have a solid engineering education in waste disposal engineering.
One day when the particular form of network programming or website design that you do becomes obsolete, you will be out of a job and no longer current. But keep up with the delusions that some “useful” degrees are above all the others.
Having a solid engineering education goes way beyond one particular form of programming or skill. It’s about having a solid understanding of how math and the sciences apply to technology in the real world, and using that one’s background and experience to acquire new skills and be a productive contributor to any organization. That seems to be something that less intuitive types never seem to grasp, as they wonder they they are best marginally employable.
You’re babbling like a silly kook. You Stans always seem to think that by claiming you have engineering training, you are better than the rest of the world. Since you are incapable of seeing the value of art I do not accept your argument.
Let me guess, you majored in some “Art” related major and still haven’t figured out why your career choices are pretty dismal, right? Sorry, but not everyone in the real world busy into this PC crap that all majors are created equal.
I’m old enough that the introductory computing class I took at Cal was taught using FORTRAN. The fact that almost nobody uses it anymore hasn’t suddenly rendered me unemployable, as I’m learning new skills all the time. But then again, that’s the difference between a solid academic program in the sciences or an engineering discipline, and studying some fluff course like the various and sundry racial and ethnic victimization programs that fill your mind full of nonsensical propaganda. In the sciences and engineering, you’re taught HOW to think, and drilled in the fundamentals (math, the scientific method) to learn how to figure out problems and come up with workable solutions. In most of these liberal arts and humanities courses, you’re basically taught WHAT to think. Now if you choose to major in Communications or Art History or Gay or Lesbian Studies, be my guest – it’s a free country. However, don’t go around pissing and moaning about “income inequality” and the usual left-wing crap because you wind up spending your life working as a clerk in Sproul Hall because you chose to pursue a course of study that doesn’t even provide you with the basic tools to get a semblance of a decent paying job in the private sector.
I am Stan. I have a solid degree in a lucrative field. I love Orly Taitz and am a positive contributor to my organization. We collect love for Orly Taitz and freeze it in hope of repopulating the world after Armageddon.
[The new contract — which had been in negotiations since May 2008 —
grants clerical staff a retroactive 3 percent wage increase for the
2011-12 fiscal year. Staff wages will continue to increase by 3 percent
for each of the next three fiscal years from 2012-15 with a 2 percent
increase for the final contract year of 2015-16, according to the press
release.]
So the University is in deep financial trouble, and they are still handing out raises?
The raises will just about cover the additional contributions employees will have to make to their insurance and pensions.
Of course, we’re so, so lucky to have anyone who’s willing to pay us to work that we should be scampering to blow Mark Yudof.
They can always quit and try to find jobs in the private sector if they think they are getting a raw deal. The “official” unemployment rate in this state is over 10%, while the unofficial rate is closer to 15-20%, with an additional 10% consisting of hourly wage workers who are effectively underemployed due to having hours cut in this crappy Obama economy. They might find out that they don’t have it so bad as state employees after all.
So if some slaves have been able to forge better relationships with their owners than others, does that mean they shouldn’t try to get out of slavery?
Nice try in hijacking Calipenguin’s handle, you little turd, but if you accept employment voluntarily and you are paid a wage, you’re not a “slave”. But thanks again for that excellent example of the intellectual dishonesty of the Left.
No, but the logic is the same. If your employer doesn’t pay enough, but pays more than the next guy, does that mean you shouldn’t try to do your best to get your employer to pay you enough to live on? When your only means to live — working for a wage — doesn’t pay you enough, and you can’t find another employer who will, well, that seems like involuntary acceptance of the inability to support oneself.
And here comes Tony who wants every American to graduate with a degree in engineering, because of course there is an engineering job available for every American, and no other division of labor is necessary to enable the engineers to do what they do.
If your employer doesn’t pay you enough, and you can’t find one who does, maybe you should consider whether you have marketable skills, and whether you made a wise choice regarding your undergraduate major.
Engineering is important. You need us to analyze stress in members or write reports about the yield stress of string cheese. When string cheese becomes obsolete, they will fire me and hire a young Stan who has marketable spray cheese skills, perpetuating the cycle.
I am the Right Honest Stan. I am a Federal Internet Marshall, here to protect the Online World from Hijackers.
My God, how I wish someone would sock you in your blowhard jaw.
I will reply to you elsewhere…
I’m sorry. I have issues from when my mother called me a kook when I was being silly. I’ve taken to compulsive internet commentary as a coping mechanism but I’m trying to work past that. Dull hollow fudd.
I want to blow Mark Yudof.
actually with increase pension payments, they will make less next year then they did 3 years ago
That’s still more than the 10-15% in this state who are currently unemployed.
So why are you and your cronies bitching about these employees receiving raises?
Talk about cognitive dissonance, child.
Yup $15 million in bonuses to executives just last year. In some cases, 20% raises.
Funny how UC is in too much trouble to pay workers, but still “The Best And The Brightest” never can cost too much.