Administration hinders right to unionize

Monday, May 4, 1998

Administration hinders right to unionize

SAGE: Murphy Hall uses underhanded tactics that limit democratic
process

By Joseph Nevins

A state labor board ruling issued late April 24 greatly
bolstered the efforts of academic student employees to gain union
and collective bargaining rights. The Public Employment Relations
Board (PERB) found that teaching associates (acting instructor is
the UCLA equivalent), readers and tutors at UC San Diego are,
indeed, employees.

In doing so, PERB rejected the university administration’s
argument that the educational objectives of academic student
employees within these categories are subordinate to the vital
services they perform for the university in their jobs. PERB also
dismissed the university’s contention that unionization of academic
student employees would disrupt the pursuit of excellence in the
UC.

This historic decision obligates the UCSD administration either
to extend voluntary recognition to the academic student employee
union on campus or to respect the outcome of a PERB-conducted vote
on unionization by UCSD’s teaching associates, readers and tutors.
As such, the PERB decision bodes well for campaigns among academic
student employees on the other seven UC campuses to gain union
rights, most notably here at UCLA.

Following the normal unionization process for employees seeking
collective bargaining rights, UCLA’s Student Association of
Graduate Employees (SAGE), along with fellow union, the United Auto
Workers (UAW), submitted union membership cards to PERB in early
1994. In May of that year, PERB verified that SAGE represents a
majority of academic student employees and declared that "voluntary
recognition (of SAGE/UAW) may be granted by the employer (UCLA)."
Even though Murphy Hall has thus far refused to extend such
recognition, the law also allows SAGE to gain union recognition
through an election conducted under PERB guidelines.

But Chancellor Albert Carnesale and the UCLA administration have
even refused SAGE/UAW’s offer to agree to such an election. Rather
than submitting to an official, democratic and binding election,
the UCLA administration is trying to go forward with a bogus poll
on unionization among graduate students in the wake of the UC’s
legal defeat in San Diego.

SAGE has a pending petition before PERB, on the right to
unionization for UCLA teaching assistants, readers, tutors and
acting instructors, as well as for individuals working in a variety
of other job classifications. If PERB rules in SAGE’s favor, the
legal decision could force the university’s hand and result in
voluntary recognition by UCLA or an official, legally conducted,
secret-ballot election among UCLA’s academic student employees.

But through what appears to be a blatant attempt to undermine a
potentially favorable ruling on SAGE’s petition, Murphy Hall is
orchestrating the holding of a referendum on SAGE during the
upcoming Graduate Student Association (GSA) elections.

Whereas GSA has conducted such polls in the past – as recently
as 1993 – they have not done so since SAGE gained majority status
in 1994. Historically, polling while a majority union petition is
pending has been viewed as interfering with employees’ rights to
select a union freely and without fear of reprisal.

The GSA constitution and the GSA’s own by-laws provide no
authorization for placing such a poll on the GSA ballot.
Furthermore, GSA cannot guarantee confidentiality in the electoral
process, a key premise of votes on unionization because of the
potential for intimidation and reprisals on the part of the
employer. Such reasons led the GSA forum to remove the poll from
the ballot, but elements of the GSA leadership, a number of whom
have openly expressed anti-union sentiments, are attempting to
circumvent the intent of the forum by resorting to
extra-constitutional means to try to put the poll back on the
ballot.

It appears that these GSA officials are serving the interests of
Carnesale and Murphy Hall. Indeed, GSA officials publicly admitted
at the April 23 forum meeting that the UCLA Graduate Division, in
an unprecedented move, is funding the election and that GSA
officials have been consulting with university lawyers. Given the
university’s long-standing practice of blocking the efforts of
UCLA’s academic student employees to unionize, the intent of such a
"poll" can only be to subvert the democratic process.

The university’s disregard for the democratically expressed
wishes of its academic student employees has long been clear. The
UC has spent millions of dollars in litigation over the past 14
years attempting to deny unionization rights to its teaching
assistants, readers, tutors and acting instructors.

Now that SAGE/UAW and its sister unions throughout the
University of California are closer than ever to gaining our legal
rights to collective bargaining, the UCLA administration has pulled
out a new, underhanded tactic from its bag of tricks. The bogus GSA
poll is simply the latest stage in the university’s long-term
strategy of stonewalling.

SAGE/UAW members, however, will continue to fight to defend our
legal rights regardless of the administration’s machinations. We
will gather at Kinsey Hall 51 on May 5 at 6 p.m. and vote on the
question of striking in fall 1998. A strong turnout and an
overwhelming "Yes!" vote will show Murphy Hall that solidarity and
democracy are principles that the administration cannot easily
deter.