Union Builder Communicator: June 13, 2008 | |
TX/RX Contracts Likely To Expire June 30 If the TX and RX contracts expire June 30, the university will be required to maintain the status quo for all working conditions until our members approve an agreement including raises and benefits protections. The university will be legally prohibited from making many changes, such as increasing parking and transportation fees, benefits costs, reorganizing the work place, changing shifts and many other changes. Please print out the bargaining unfair labor practice fact sheet for your reference. Union members must help enforce this status quo by reporting any unilateral changes. UPTE-CWA stewards will work with our attorneys to file unfair labor practice charges with the Public Employment Labor Relations Board (PERB). Two other major changes that will occur when our contract expires are that (1) UC must pay for all overtime worked and not provide comp time except with explicit approval from the union in each case, and (2) the union can no longer take grievances to arbitration but instead must go to PERB or use a university-implemented hearing process. AFSCME Continues Fight for Fair Pay UC seeks to divide service and patient care technical workers by making different wage offers, using the excuse that 25% of the service unit is funded by the state. UC refuses to put any guaranteed raises on the table for service workers. On benefits and pension issues, UC continues to insist on unilateral control over the costs and benefits. AFSCME faces many of the same issues at the table as UPTE-CWA and we will continue to support its efforts for a fair contract. CWA Stewards’ Army UPTE-CWA will sign up all our union builders as members of the national union’s Stewards Army. If you are receiving this email, we consider you a union builder. If for some reason you do not wish to participate, please let us know. Fighting Livermore Layoffs The cut backs have begun to create serious health and safety concerns as there not enough personnel available to perform the usual preventative maintenance and follow all normal safety requirements. Legislators have already begun to pressure the lab to address the possibility of accidents that not only affect the employees, but also the surrounding community of Livermore. Stewards Tip: Comp Time or Pay for Overtime Worked Our new skilled trades members are very concerned about their job security after management placed much of their future budget in a plan to develop reliable, renewable warheads that was politically and scientifically doomed. We want to ensure that any staff reductions respect seniority and that the lab seeks to keep as many employees as possible. There will be many other contract demands in this first-ever contract for skilled trades at the lab. Stay tuned for more.
Last issue's winner was John Mortimer of UCSD. 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. |