University, union arrive at tentative agreement

By Timothy Kudo

Daily Bruin Staff

The United Auto Workers and the University of California reached
a tentative contract agreement for academic student employees
across the eight general campuses early Wednesday morning.

This first contract between the university and the unions for
teaching assistants, readers and tutors marks the end of a 17-year
period in which the two sides battled initially over collective
bargaining rights and then on the specifics of their now completed
contract.

In the contract, the two sides agreed upon issues such as wage
increases, fee remissions and a policy on how to settle workload
disputes.

“We believe this is an agreement that is fair to academic
student employees, that is within the resources available to us and
that recognizes the central role of the faculty in maintaining the
UC’s standards of academic excellence,” UC President
Richard Atkinson said in a statement.

Union leaders also said they were pleased with the historic
agreement.

“We’re ecstatic about the agreement,” said
Christian Sweeney, a representative of the union at UC Berkeley.
“We think it’s a really solid agreement.

“People fought for a long time on it, and it’s great
to see things finally coming to fruition.”

Union members must still vote on the agreement, which, if
approved, would last until Sept. 30, 2003. A date for voting has
not yet been determined, but union officials said they are
confident members will approve the contract.

Though Sweeney said the union won’t talk about specifics
of the agreement until the union members vote, both sides have
released parts of the contract.

In it, TAs, readers and tutors would receive a 9.5 percent
salary increase over the next three years with an immediate 1.5
percent increase.

Questions over whether the union would negotiate workload issues
were also determined. In the contract, members of the academic
senate will act as final mediators. In a dispute, the department
head will work to resolve the situation. If that fails, a designee
of the chancellor will be called upon.

If neither can find a solution, two members of the academic
senate, one chosen by the university and the other by the union
will try to resolve the issue. As a last resort, the two
arbitrators will pick a third.

“It’s essentially a process that offers a variety of
opportunities within the academic senate,” said Brad Hayward,
a UC spokesman.

In addition, a full fee remission will be instituted gradually
by fall of 2002. Currently, there is a 60 percent fee
remission.

Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, vice chancellor of academic affairs and
dean of the graduate division at UCLA, said she was happy with the
terms of the contract she had seen thus far.

“I’m really pleased we’re moving toward full
fee remissions,” she said.

After being informed of the contract, Collin O’Neil, a
philosophy TA, expressed his surprise and relief that negotiations
were over.

“I was afraid we were going to have to strike,”
O’Neil said. “The e-mails we were getting from the
union were sounding ominous.”

If the contract is approved, two issues may be brought up again
in 2001 ““ job classifications and summer sessions.

According to Hayward, issues surrounding summer sessions may be
brought back to the table since the UC is attempting to accommodate
the expected 60,000 additional students that are expected over the
next 10 years in what is called Tidal Wave 2.

The university is looking to turn year-round, and as a result,
summer TAs will be important, Hayward said.

Since the union and the UC went to the bargaining table last
year, both sides have filed unfair labor practice charges with the
Public Employment Relations Board, the state organization that
governs labor disputes with state employers.

Though many of those charges have been settled and a contract
has been reached, Sweeney said PERB is still going to investigate
the allegations and that the outcome will be important to future
negotiations.

“We want the university to abide by its legal
obligations,” he said. “If we’re going to have a
good bargaining relationship, then that’s got to
happen.”

The unions have been trying to get a contract with the
university for the past 17 years.

Last year, PERB ruled that the academic student employees should
have the right to vote for union representation.

With reports from Lawrence Ferchaw, Daily Bruin Senior
Staff.