UC San Diego Dietitians organize to protect their union representation and working standards

One of UC's favorite union-busting tactics in recent years has been to lure members out of union classifications and into newly-created or rarely used nonunion positions, sometimes offering a little more pay along with the new title. This practice, while seemingly innocuous on an individual level, can have catastrophic consequences for us all over time. 

At UC San Diego, a Dietitian 4 position has come into greater use in recent years, originally packaged as a promotion to people who were offered the role. Unlike the rest of the dietitian job series, however, this title was typically reserved for people with more experience and higher-level responsibilities. When UPTE Unit Representative and Dietitian 2 Samantha Warsh began investigating, she discovered that people in this new title weren't actually doing that higher level work, raising questions about the classification and its use. 

"I noticed more and more dietitians being moved out of represented positions and into the nonunion Dietitian 4 title. This is concerning for a few reasons. First, management is often not totally upfront with people about what moving into a nonunion title can mean. This happened a few years ago when pharmacists at a few places including UCSF and UCSD were moved into a nonunion Pharmacy Specialist 5 title and given a small pay bump," Sam recalled. "But management didn't tell the pharmacists that the new title meant losing out on the UPTE pension tier, which means having to work an additional five years before retirement. That trade-off pales in comparison to a small increase in pay."

"Second, management likes to pretend that this gives them flexibility to pay people more, but that's rarely actually the case and people end up missing out on the guaranteed raises we win in contract negotiations," Sam continued. "It's also much easier to discipline, terminate, or lay people off in these nonunion titles. Finally, we need to protect our leverage—if we end up needing to strike down the line to get the contract we deserve, more people in nonunion titles being forced to cross our picket line will weaken our strength."

Sam and her fellow dietitians began to investigate. They discovered that people in this title were doing work covered by union titles, and were not truly managers. They also discovered that new hires in the title were earning significantly less than they would in union positions covered by our contract. Ultimately, after a number of conversations, the decision was made to file unfair labor practice charges against UC with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). After a hearing with PERB, the members emerged victorious and the Dietitian 4 title became covered by the UPTE contract at UC.

"This is an important victory that will create opportunities for increased compensation, career growth, promotions, and enhanced job security for dietitians. We saw other UC campuses try to follow UCSD's lead by using a similar scheme, but this should put an end to that practice," Sam said. "The situation at UCLA was particularly dire—pay was so low that the employer had to hire dietitians on temporary contracts through companies like Sodexo because they couldn't attract and retain staff. Now, with negotiations for our next contract on the horizon, dietitians are in a stronger position than ever to win improved compensation and working conditions so we can continue serving our patients and our communities."