UC’s regressive bargaining hinders undergrad education

UC lecturers are at the end of their rope.

Last Monday the bargaining team composed of lecturers from
different UC campuses went to Sacramento for contract negotiations
with UC’s Labor Relations Department staff and
representatives from the campuses. On the second day of
negotiations, we believe the university engaged in regressive
bargaining.

Their team made specific concessions during negotiations that
they later took back. Understandably, we, as a bargaining team,
were not happy about this turn of events. But this was only the
beginning.

After this breakdown in negotiations happened, the UC bargaining
team announced that they were making what amounted to a
“final offer” for lecturers. This offer would not be
open to any substantive bargaining. It was strictly a
“take-it-or-leave-it” proposal.

Furthermore if lecturers rejected the UC offer, the university
would then withdraw this final offer and put an official
“last, best and final offer” on the table. The
“last, best and final offer,” they announced, would be
significantly worse than what they were giving us.

The university was, in effect, giving lecturers an ultimatum:
Accept our proposal, or we are going to move to end the
negotiations, declare impasse, and eventually impose a contract
upon lecturers.

Ultimately, the offer came as a disappointment because the
manner in which it was delivered and the offer, itself, were
contemptuous of lecturers and what we are trying to achieve:
first-rate undergraduate education.

Because UCLA lecturers teach about half of all undergraduate
courses, a good undergraduate program in the UC system can only be
achieved with good working conditions for lecturers.

But many UCLA lecturers teach with little job security. Some do
not know their schedule for the next quarter until days before it
starts. Lecturers are dramatically underpaid compared to tenure
track faculty or comparably qualified teachers in the Cal State
system, community colleges, or K-12 schools.

These issues have never been seriously addressed by the UC labor
relations bureaucrats in their contract negotiations. Instead these
bureaucrats have arrogantly engaged in unfair labor practices and
refused to meaningfully bargain with lecturers.

Two weeks ago, lecturers engaged in a strike that affected
classes on five campuses: Davis, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara,
Riverside and Irvine. We had hoped the two-day strikes would
minimize the harm to students and to course instruction while at
the same time getting the university to stop its unfair and
arrogant labor practices. Instead we were blinded by an ultimatum
during mediation.

The UC has provided us no alternative but to strike.

This time, UCLA will be joining a systemwide strike Jan. 21-24.
We believe this is necessary to show that lecturers are tired of
the UC administration’s disrespect. Unfortunately, UCLA
undergraduates will be hurt because UC administrators are unwilling
to provide a system that promotes quality undergraduate
instruction.

We would rather not have a systemwide strike in January, but
that decision lies in the hands of the administration. Lecturers
have been bargaining for over two and a half years. We have refused
to buckle and sign a contract we believe hurts our members and
cheapens undergraduate education.

Lecturers are also resolved to strike again. If the university
continues its regressive bargaining approach after the January
strike or attempts to impose a contract upon lecturers, we may be
forced into an open-ended strike.

Bureaucrats that have never set foot on the UCLA campus are
holding your education hostage. As students, you deserve better.
You might want to contact Chancellor Albert Carnesale and UC
President Richard Atkinson and let them know UCLA must make
undergraduate education a priority by improving the working
conditions of UCLA’s lecturers.