At UC Davis, SysAdmins take their fight from the bargaining table to the boss's doorstep
For nearly two years, Systems Administrators have been fighting for a fair agreement that properly values their contributions to UC's mission. UC, on the other hand, has continued to propose pay scales that would leave dozens of members above the top step and ineligible for future raises—further contributing to ongoing morale and retention issues.
On October 12, however, SysAdmins at UC Davis took matters into their own hands by marching on their boss and demanding to know why UCD has the lowest proposed SA3 pay ceiling of any campus other than Merced. They delivered a letter to UC Davis CIO and Vice Provost Viji Murali calling out UC's recent proposal that would have left the top pay for Systems Administrators at Davis $35,000 lower than UC Berkeley and $17,000 lower than UC Irvine.
And at our very next bargaining session, UC came back to the table with an updated proposal that better values our important work.
"This was a really gratifying experience. For SysAdmins, becoming part of UPTE has been a really long process. Many of us work remotely, or are working on different days, so it can be hard to get us all together. We saw UC making good offers to others campuses like Berkeley, but Davis was still lagging behind and so we felt like we needed to do something," said Joseph Menke, a Systems Administrator at UC Davis. "We started to engage our coworkers and ask basic questions about why we were being left behind as a campus and what we were going to do about it. Ultimately, what it comes back to is that we want UC to show respect for the work that we do. We've all seen the vacant positions, the retention issues, and so on. For UC to be able to get talented folks to come in and secure data and provide services, this was necessary."
Joseph continued, saying, "My main approach is to meet people where they are—just because we're working remotely doesn't mean we aren't communicating. So we used tools like Slack and other communications methods to reach out, start dialogue, and get everyone on the same page. We've all sat in on some of the negotiating process over Zoom, and watching the UC drag their feet and not take action really underscored the need for us to take some action outside of bargaining to get them to move. Over the past year or so, as we have negotiated with UC, we've really focused on these incremental but important victories that will get us closer to a deal. UC's whole strategy has been to delay, delay, delay."
These IT professionals work hard to support, troubleshoot, and maintain UC's computer networks so that the needs of our students, faculty, clinicians, and patients are met. Without them, our campuses, medical centers, and workplaces would struggle to function. While we do not yet have a finalized agreement in hand, SysAdmin members at Davis have demonstrated yet again that we don't win or lose at the bargaining table alone—by taking action together as a union, we can have a real impact on the quality of our day-to-day lives at work.
