SAGE anticipates contract approval by graduate students

By Mason Stockstill

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

If the readers, tutors and teaching assistants in UCLA’s
Student Association of Graduate Employees approve their union
contract with the university, there might not be any more strikes
for quite a while.

That’s because one of the many provisions outlined in the
contract is a “no-strike” clause, which the union
agreed to in exchange for binding

arbitration hearings if any dispute should arise.

The proposed contract was tentatively agreed upon by
representatives from UC and the various academic employee unions at
all eight general UC campuses last Wednesday.

The bargaining team from the different campuses’ unions
have recommended to the membership that the contract be ratified.
The contract only takes effect at those campuses where the union
membership ratifies it.

“We think it’s a fair contract because it provides
the rights and benefits our membership asked for and needs,”
said Colin Warren, a geography graduate student and member of
SAGE/UAW’s bargaining team.

University representatives have also said they are satisfied
with the terms of the contract.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement with the
union,” UC President Richard Atkinson said in a statement.
“The parties have worked long and hard to … craft a
mutually acceptable resolution.”

The contract is the end result of years of action by the unions,
who have been agitating for recognition from the university for
most of the decade. UC recognized the union in 1999 after the
Public Employment Relations Board ruled that academic student
employees had the same unionizing rights as any other
employees.

Voting on the contract at UCLA ended on Tuesday, but the results
have not yet been announced. The other campuses will finish voting
today. If approved, the contract would be effective until September
30, 2003.

The 30-page contract, which previously had not been released,
was made available on the union’s Web site Monday so that
union members could have the opportunity to read it before
voting.

“It’s there so they can read the actual contract
language,” said Christian Sweeney, of UC Berkeley’s
Association of Graduate Student Employees. “There’s
also a summary of the contract that they can read,” she
added.

The contract outlines in detail the specifics of the rights and
benefits afforded to academic student employees, ranging from
guaranteed job security to fee remissions.

Though Warren said the contract was similar to the
university’s previous guiding documents for academic
employees, the Academic Apprentice Personnel Manual, there were
still many changes.

“A lot of issues that weren’t addressed previously
by the university are addressed in the contract,” Warren
said.

According to the summary posted by the bargaining team, the
contract fulfills the union’s top priority:

neutral arbitration procedures.

The contract outlines a specific process for filing grievances,
which provides opportunities for disputes to be resolved through
mediation and eventually, arbitration.

One of the contract’s specifications that the university
was adamant about is academic decisions. The contract specifies
that a member of the Academic Senate will decide disputes over
workloads.

Before the unions were recognized in 1999, university officials
had said one of their fears of allowing academic student employees
to form a union was that responsibility for academic decisions
would be taken away from the people best trained to make those
decisions.

All in all, union officials look forward to implementing the
contract.

“We’re confident that it will pass,” Sweeney
said.