UPTE President Dan Russell: "We work too much and are paid too little," say the results of our contract priority forms

It shouldn't be a surprise that the top results in our Contract Priorities Campaign were higher wages, more time off, and improved career development.

Inflation has been hitting us hard for 2 years, on top of housing prices and rents that have spiraled out of control. Too many of us lack clear pathways to higher-paying titles, have reached the top step too early in our career, or have only non-union titles to move into. This forces us to choose between career advancement and guaranteed raises, job security, and even retirement benefits.

On top of this, too many of our departments are short-staffed, making it hard to take much-needed vacations and other time-off. For exempt/salaried workers, short-staffing often leads to working well above 40 hours a week with no additional compensation. Even for those of us who "only" work 40 hours, increased workload and pressure to work non-stop through breaks or lunches takes its toll, especially after the pressures of the COVID pandemic.

Is it fair that UC Executives start their careers with 3 days a year more vacation/PTO than us? After only 5 years of service, they get 6 days a year more than front-line staff and we only catch up to them after we've been at UC for 20 years!

We want and deserve more vacation, the right to use our vacation, and the right to cash out vacation. We want and deserve improved rights to flex down to part-time work, to more flexible schedules, or work remotely whenever those things are feasible.

Many studies, including one that just concluded in the UK, have shown that more time off and a shorter work-week lead to higher productivity - meaning there is essentially no cost to the employer. As Senator Bernie Sanders asked in a recent editorial: why are we still working 40 hours per week when productivity has increased by 480% since the 1930s?

We shouldn't have to choose between compensation, career development, or more time off. To win improvements in all of these things now and over the course of our careers, we need to fight for improved staffing and job security.

Experience has shown us that UC Executives won't give us better pay or vacation benefits, let alone a shorter work week with no reduction in pay, without a fight. 

That's why we're spending the next month working to recruit the hundreds of members who you identified as respected co-workers as Unit and Workplace Representatives. We need these Representatives to make sure we have even higher participation in our Bargaining Survey, which will guide our bargaining team in negotiations next year and which we'll be rolling out in July.

Our 2024 contract fight is our opportunity to reshape our work lives across UC for the years to come. Let's make UC lead the way in pay, work-life balance, career advancement, and more!