By Scott B. Wong
Daily Bruin Staff
After more than 10 months of negotiations, the University of
California reached a tentative agreement Tuesday with the
University Professional and Technical Employees union that includes
across-the-board wage increases for research professionals.
The UC is expected to approve the tentative contract by next
week.
But a separate contract for university technical employees,
which UPTE also represents, is still in the bargaining process.
Rita Kern, president of UCLA UPTE and a staff research associate
at the Neuropsychiatric Institute, called the agreement a
“very good contract.”
“For most employees, it will be the best raises
they’ve had in 10 years or better,” she said.
The two-year contract, a first according to Kern, will allow
UPTE members to focus on other pressing issues.
“We will not have to go to the bargaining table until next
summer for October 2002,” Kern said.
UC Office of the President spokesman Brad Hayward said the UC is
pleased to have reached this agreement with the union.
“This is an important group of employees,” Hayward
said. “We’re glad that both sides have come to an
agreement for these employees.”
According to Kern, the UC currently employs approximately 3,800
research professionals between nine UC campuses and five medical
centers ““ 30 percent of which are UPTE members.
Part of UPTE’s recruitment strategy, Kern said, is to
provide union members more detailed information about the contract
than non-members. That way, non-members ““ who cannot exercise
voting power ““ will be encouraged to join the union, she
said.
“We are a democratic grassroots union,” she said.
“The more people who join, the stronger we are.”
A system-wide union vote is expected to take place June 11-15
from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. UPTE members will set up voting locations
throughout campus.
Portions of raises for 2000-01 will be retroactive to Oct. 1,
2000, and increases for 2001-02 will be effective Oct. 1, 2001.
Step-based employees ““ which include marine technicians
and assistant museum scientists ““ will receive a 2.8 percent
raise across the board for 2000-01 and a 2 percent increase for
2001-02, contingent upon expected budget allocations.
“(Step-based employees) have between five to 10 set steps
in their pay category,” Kern said. “There’s a
bottom and top and it goes up in increments.”
The bottom and top of the salary structure will be increased by
4 and 10 percent, respectively, according to the contract.
For 2000-01, open-range, or merit-based, employees will receive
4.3 percent across-the-board increases. For 2001-02, they will
receive a 1.75 percent increase, a 1.75 percent funding pool for
the regular merit program and 2 percent salary structure increases,
contingent upon expected budget allocations.
In addition, both step and merit-based employees will receive a
$56-per-month increase.
Merit-based employees ““ including museum scientists and
staff research associate IIs and above ““ receive raises based
on an evaluation and what supervisors think the employee deserves,
Kern said.
“But it’s not uniformly set, so someone could be
doing an excellent job and get a poor raise,” she said.
The merit system is a newer system put in place by university in
the late1980s.
“UPTE is trying to get away from that system,” Kern
said. “It can be biased and unpredictable and you never
really know what you’re going to get.”
Kern said UPTE will use this contract as an “organizing
tool.”
“We want to educate the employees about the
contract,” she said. “It’s an excellent contract
to get more people to join up to build strength in
numbers.”
According to Hayward, the negotiation process has been made by
the UC in good faith.
“We wanted to make compromises for a mutually acceptable
resolution and we’re pleased that that’s what
we’ve achieved,” he said.