Meet your UC bargaining team: UC Davis representatives
Although strong contracts aren’t won by expert negotiators alone, having frontline members from every campus and across job titles is essential. We are the subject matter experts in our day-to-day work and know better than anyone what we need to advance our world-changing research, provide life-saving patient care, and make sure our technical expertise is respected.
UPTE’s bargaining team at UC is comprised of 25 members from a range of healthcare, research, and technical job titles from each UC campus and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Each month, we’ll highlight members of our bargaining team from various UC campuses and workplaces. You can find a full roster of our bargaining team here.
What motivated you to run for the bargaining team?
Amy Fletcher, Staff Research Associate 4: I wanted to be an advocate for researchers and other lab workers. So many SRAs and lab assistants that I talk to are planning to leave because they can’t afford to stay. I wanted them to have a voice at the table
Danielle Daniels, Animal Health Technician 3: I realized that the issues my coworkers and I were facing were not unique to our workplace. Working in this industry is known for its burnout and high turnover, but we never speak up because we love the animals. Being on the bargaining team was an opportunity to organize, fight, and be the voice for my fellow Animal Technicians and Animal Health Technicians statewide. Animal care has been forgotten for so long, and it was time that the UC realized that we have our hand in all three areas of their mission: healthcare, research and education.
Sonya Mogilner, Clinical Social Worker: I ran to be on the bargaining team because I wanted to see the momentum we've built at Davis to continue and to be a part of that movement. Our team spent years finding leaders who spoke to their members and told us exactly what we need in our next contract. I am honored to fight for every member we represent and their mandate is clear in every bargaining session we've attended. As great union leaders have said, nothing is too good for the working class, and fighting for everything our members deserve has been so rewarding, and we have so much more to win for our chapter and every single one of our 20,000 members.
Anastasia Vourakis, Physical Therapist 2: I’m passionate about ensuring fair treatment and equitable working conditions. Seeing the impact of past negotiations on our workplace made me realize how crucial it is to have dedicated representatives who truly understand the needs of the employees. I wanted to run for the bargaining team because I wanted to make a better work environment for our staff. I love my coworkers and working at UC Davis and when I saw the opportunity, I wanted to be able to affect change. I feel empowered to make changes at UC to improve the working environment for all our amazing staff. I understand that being part of the bargaining team involves negotiating complex issues and representing diverse perspectives. I’m motivated by the challenge of advocating effectively for our members and ensuring that their voices are heard in the bargaining process. I believe in our union and want to see all our hard work from the last few years with our new structure come to fruition at bargaining.
What’s the number one issue you hear about from your coworkers?
Amy: Reclassification. The SRA series concept dates to 1973 and is incredibly vague. Some departments have their own rules that aren’t written and people languish and feel stuck. It’s so demoralizing to work every day with no potential for advancement.
Danielle: It’s no shocker that compensation is the biggest complaint. With the cost of living and inflation going up, everyone is just barely getting by. Most people in animal care have to work more than one job. It’s not just about low wages though, because when people continually leave to find higher pay, it creates a domino effect of issues: low staffing ratios, high turnover and burnout.
Sonya: For social workers, staffing and pay are the core issues. It's getting harder and harder to recruit and retain the talented staff that our patients and clients deserve because we’re behind other area employers. Being so short-staffed for so long means that most of us are covering for each other and staffing levels have gotten unsafe and unmanageable at times. People are not able to take the vacations that they need to take to see their families or take care of themselves. People are burning out. We need more vacation time, dedicated bereavement leave, better pay, and compensation for the continuing education and licensing fees we need to meet the minimum standards of our employment. We want to be able to work from home if their job duties allow for remote work, to save time commuting and parking. We want UC to support us and allow us to make this a career, not just a job, so we can continue to provide the best social work service to our most vulnerable neighbors.
Anastasia: The number one issue for the Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation department is pay and work/life balance. All the other hospitals in the area pay more than UCD and offer part-time positions. Yet even though UCD is the best hospital in Sacramento, it doesn't treat its employees as such and doesn't appear to value us. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we were on the frontline treating patients and giving them the best care and it pushed our staff to the brink. The PM&R department has been constantly forced to do more with less. We work more weekends than ever before and now work later hours with no increase in pay. Our staff is burnt out and tired of the current conditions. It's time UC reset its priorities and address the work/life balance issues or it will no longer have the amazing staff that makes it the best hospital in Sacramento.
How will winning a strong contract benefit your work or the people who benefit from your work?
Amy: I think it would aid retention for sure. We’ve had a lot of turnover in my department of late and recruitment has gotten harder due to the pay and when we do hire people they are sometimes already planning to leave. I love my work and my department and want our amazing staff to be able to build a career here if they choose.
Danielle: A strong contract means recruiting and retaining the best technicians. When individuals can go to work knowing that they aren’t just making “ends meet” and can actually enjoy life outside of work, they become happier and want to stay. Having a job that supports you while also working with our furry, feathered and scaly friends is a dream come true. Great technicians are the difference between groundbreaking research, top-quality patient (pet) care, and food-animal health. It’s a win-win for everyone, especially the UC.
Sonya: Our social workers work with the most vulnerable populations in the state and at the local. We are a level 1 trauma center that accepts patients from as far away as Reno, Redding, Hawaii, and Bakersfield. If we had a contract that prioritized recruiting and retaining the best social workers in the state, we would become competitive again. Right now, it's an open joke that UC is a training ground for Kaiser's and other hospitals' social workers. We deserve to be held and supported by UC in the way we support our patients. Winning a strong contract would allow us to stay and continue setting the standard for what world class social work service is. It would make UC Davis a magnet for the best, and that is what our patients, clients, students, and community deserve.
Anastasia: Winning a strong contract would ensure that our patients continue to get the best care possible by attracting and retaining the specialized staff that we have. Therapists who work with our most vulnerable populations will get the pay that they deserve and have some work/life balance so they won't be so burned out that they leave.