Progress—But No Deal Yet—In Contract Negotiations between UC and AFSCME
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 10, 2014
CONTACT: Todd Stenhouse, (916) 397-1131, [email protected]
Urging UC to stay at the table, AFSCME commits to “continue bargaining until a fair settlement is reached.”
Los Angeles: Marathon bargaining sessions in Los Angeles over the weekend brought progress in the ongoing labor dispute between the University of California and AFSCME 3299, though the two sides have still not reached agreement on long term contracts for 8,300 UC Service Workers and over 13,000 UC Patient Care Technical Workers.
“Following months of major concessions from AFSCME on most of the issues under consideration during these negotiations, UC’s weekend proposals finally began to move the ball forward on our core issues of wages and staffing, but unfortunately fell short of what has already been granted to other UC workers and what is needed to settle this contract,” said AFSCME 3299 Bargaining Team Member and UC Service Worker Patrick Mitchell. “That’s why we will be offering UC another counter proposal today, and why we have committed to continue bargaining around the clock until a fair settlement is reached.”
In addition to wages, outstanding issues include staffing protections to address the skyrocketing injury rates amongst UC Service Workers, as well as UC’s increasing replacement of career service and patient care positions with temporary workers and inexperienced, low-wage sub-contractors. UC’s current position on the latter, for example, currently conflicts with the standards that both CSU and the California Community College system are required by law to follow.
UC Service Workers will begin a scheduled strike authorization vote on Tuesday, and UC Patient Care Technical Workers will be voting on whether to authorize a sympathy strike.
In its last contract proposal, UC threatened to rescind its offer if AFSCME’s vote proceeded as planned.
“Our membership has been kept constantly informed as to the status of negotiations, and will have a chance to weigh in on the merits of UC’s proposals in this week’s strike authorization vote,” added Bargaining Team Member and Patient Care Technical Worker Tim Thrush. “Instead of attaching arbitrary deadlines, threats and brinksmanship to their proposals, we are urging UC to stay at the table and respond to our good faith counter-offers in kind. Ultimately, this is the only way to avert a strike and bring this long running dispute to an end.”
To date, AFSCME 3299 has conceded to UC’s position on over 75% of the issues over which the parties have been negotiating. This includes everything from changes to retiree healthcare for new workers and increased parking rates to contract language regarding appointments, transfers, resignations and union leave. AFSCME has also agreed to UC’s top priority of pension reform, which will require substantially higher employee contributions and has offered compromise on issues related to wages and staffing.
