Union Builder Communicator: November 29, 2007 | |
TX/RX Bargaining Starting UPTE will inform UC of what sections of the contract we will bargain about in January and UC has to do the same with UPTE in February. The first negotiation sessions should take place in March. Our team will be looking to get a quick start because our contract expires at the end of June and we are bargaining for raises that are due in October. Please put up our bargaining timeline poster in your work place to remind you and everyone in your work area about our bargaining. We will start preparing regular bargaining updates that you can distribute to your co-workers early next year. While we will also send out information by email, nothing beats face-to-face discussion and two-way dialog to keep our union member run. Next year's bargaining will certainly be a challenge, especially with the looming financial crisis with the state budget. UPTE-CWA Opts Out of Stay Well Worse yet, in CNA's experience with this kind of program at the Sutter Hospital chain, the program starts out as an employee benefit with financial incentives but ends as a punitive tool. At Sutter, a couple years into the program employees' premiums were raised by $100's/month if they did not participate in the health risk survey. Also, if they did not follow the advice given by the program, their premiums increased. Because of these systematic infringements on confidentiality and the history of this kind program, UPTE-CWA informed UC that our members would not participate in this program. It is our hope that because almost all the other unions did the same, that UC will drop the program. Raises Coming Through The HX raises were implemented in the middle of the year. We are, however, working on a variety of additional equity increases including for Pharmacists at UCSF. If you believe that there is either internal inequity or your pay continues to dramatically lag market rates, contact UPTE so that we can work together to advocate for additional increases. Unrepresented employees were promised a merit pool of 4% for raises. Our preliminary reports show that UC is consistently not even distributing this 4%. This means that this year, UPTE-CWA members will get 2% more than those without a union. Last year UPTE-CWA got about 1% more.
Last issue's winner was Zulma Finney of UCSF. Congratulations! |
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This e-publication was prepared by UPTE-CWA President Jelger Kalmijn. Contact him if you have any questions or comments. If you wish to be removed from this list, please email info@upte-cwa.org. |