Contract Bargaining with UC Reaches Impasse

After our 24th day of bargaining, the University showed no intention to address our priorities nor to take their legal obligations more seriously. When we asked the University to explain the claim that they are offering 19-23% raises (when in fact UC has offered just 11% across the board raises) UC's Chief Negotiator said "I didn't do the update, so no, I won't try to."

On December 11, we informed the University that we believe negotiations are no longer productive and that we should begin an 'impasse' process required by the Public Employment Relations Board before we are able to call a strike directly over our bargaining priorities. We can continue to strike in response to the University's Unfair Labor Practices during this time.

As a reminder, you can find updates from our previous bargaining sessions at upte.org/uofcalifornia. A side-by-side comparison of our proposals and UC's proposals can be found here.

UC's refusal to bargain in good faith demonstrates a lack of respect for the important work all 20,000 of us do. By failing to address the growing staffing crisis in our hospitals, labs, and campuses, UC executives are jeopardizing patient care, research, and education. UC negotiators' behavior has made crystal clear that we need to keep building pressure to force UC decision makers to change course.

Your bargaining team is recommending that UPTE hold a statewide strike vote to authorize UPTE leadership to call a strike in response to unfair labor practices committed by UC. Among the ongoing unfair labor practices UC has committed are their unilateral increase to healthcare costs, bad faith bargaining, and unconstitutional restrictions on union speech and activities. 

UPTE's Executive Board will soon be considering authorizing a statewide strike vote. Stay tuned.

In solidarity,

Dan Russell
UPTE President
UPTE Bargaining Team Chief Negotiator
UC Berkeley Business Technical Support Analyst 3