UC forms new contract for technical workers

The UC Office of the President announced Tuesday it has reached
a new wage contract with a union representing University of
California technical employees and research support professionals
that has solved many of the problems that have plagued negotiations
over the past two years.

Workers from University Professional and Technical Employees
will be receiving approximately a 12 percent pay increase over the
next three years, said Noel Van Nyhuis, a spokesman for UCOP.

He said that no further details could be given, due to an
agreement with UPTE.

The UC and UPTE have been in contract negotiations since May of
2004. The old contract expired in September 2004, leaving the group
in a contract “status-quo” stage, where wages remained
essentially the same until a new agreement could be reached, said
Max Hechter, vice president of UPTE at UCLA.

The workers will vote on the agreement Dec. 16 and are expected
to approve the new contract, said Rita Kern, president of the
group.

For the moment, most of UPTE’s concerns have been
addressed in the contract, and the group’s officials hope
previous retention problems can be resolved.

In the past, the UC has had difficulty retaining professional
and technical employees, partly due to its poor wage-increase
incentives, Hechter said.

In an effort to address this concern, the UC offered a program
of increasing pay grades as an option for the pay increase, Hechter
said.

What UPTE employees will be voting on is whether they want the
new wage increase to be applied unilaterally every year or if they
would prefer to implement a system of step increases.

Under the system of step increases, employees would receive a 2
to 2.3 percent wage increase, depending on their job title, with
every step. Employees would receive step pay increases for
retention and loyalty, Hechter said.

Under the new contract, employees will also receive a $220 lump
sum that will be distributed at the signing of the contract. Some
lower-level employees will also receive equity increases to make
their wages closer to the current market rate, Hechter said.

Though many aspects of this contract are positive, the UC has
yet to resolve several of the labor issues involved with a UPTE
strike in May of this year, Kern said.

Union representatives have accused the university of conducting
unfair labor practices in the past, namely by refusing to release
requested information and changing workplace rules and conditions
without notifying UPTE, as it is required when making any
modifications to a union contract during a status-quo period.

The group organized a UC-wide strike on May 26, 2005. Though the
primary issues behind the strike were labor-related, a secondary
goal was to expedite the negotiation process, Kern said.

Some at UPTE attribute the contract’s success to the May
strike, as they had never before organized an action on such a
large scale.

“I think (the strike) was a success, and we have generally
come to the conclusion that it helped us to get more money,”
Kern said.

UC officials, however, maintain that the strike did not
influence their decision.

“The strike had no effect on what its positions (on the
negotiations) were or what it could offer in terms of wages. State
funds were given for additional staff salaries” and UC had no
control over how much funding was received, Nyhuis said.

The new contract will expire June 30, 2008. UPTE contracts
usually take over a year to negotiate, and future problems may
include concerns over labor laws, Kern said.