UC, Union Restart Wage Talks

After a one-day strike of research support and technical employees last Thursday, UC and the University Professional and Technical Employees union are restarting the bargaining process today in the hope of ending a year-long stalemate over wages.

After rejecting the university's latest proposal on May 20, the union held a one-day strike across all nine campuses, demanding higher wages and increased public awareness of the high turnover of researchers.

More than 2,000 union workers, including about 500 UC Berkeley employees, joined picket lines or did not go to work during the strike, union officials said.

"The strike was incredibly successful," said the union's systemwide Director Dominic Chan. "Our major goal wasn't shutting down the university, but we wanted to focus public opinion onto the crisis in research."

The university is not creating incentives for researchers and technicians to keep their jobs, in addition to enforcing unfair wage systems, causing one-third of them to leave each year, Chan said.

"Our folks want to stay because of the greater social mission in public research," Chan said. "But you can't cure cancer or AIDS if people with the research knowledge decide to leave for the private sector because they can make 30 percent more."

University officials said the union's data on turnover was inaccurate.

"The union makes no distinction from employees that leave (the union) when they change positions and employees that leave the university," said UC spokesperson Paul Schwartz. "It's also important to note that turnover in various positions isn't necessarily a bad thing. You want a certain amount of turnover to renew intellectual capital."

Union officials said the latest wage proposal by the university was not comparable to the recent agreement between UC and the AFSCME service workers union and that it did not reflect necessary changes in the pay system.

Under the union's proposed system, researchers would receive a 1 to 2 percent increase in wages based on seniority, a much higher raise than the university's most recent proposal.

"The university needs to make a career ladder which rewards people for staying with the university by increasing their pay each year," Chan said.

However, Schwartz said since UC's resources are already spread thin, it cannot raise the wages of older employees until the budget compact with the governor is passed by the state legislature.

Both sides are filing unfair labor practice charges with the California Public Employment Relations Board. UC said the strike was illegal because it was organized during ongoing negotiations. Union officials said the university withheld information about diverted funds from research grants during talks.

"It seems like (the university) almost wants you strike," said Peter Thuesen, a principal lab mechanician at UC Berkeley. "Unless you go on strike, you're not going to get a decent offer."

A correction to this article can be found here.

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