Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Bargaining Update #7-- November 19, 2008
Librarian Bargaining Update for November 19, 2008
By Mike Rotkin, Chief Negotiator for Unit 17
On Wednesday, November 19, at the UCOP office in Oakland, the UC-AFT and the University Administration completed the second day of resumed bargaining. On the table are economic issues including salaries, the level of Professional Development Funds (PDF) available to Librarians on the campuses, child care support and tuition waivers. Our focus at the first two meetings has been on salaries and the economic context that affects the discussion over salaries. On the table currently is the UC-AFT’s proposal to bring UC Librarian salaries up to comparability with those at CSU.
The discussion remains cordial, but there has not yet been any significant movement at the table. Most of the time has been spent with the UC-AFT team presenting information that sets the context for bargaining. We have presented graphs, tables, and charts that demonstrate how far UC Librarian salaries lag behind the market and specifically behind Librarian salaries at CSU, most community colleges, and California public libraries. All of the members of the UC-AFT team have also shared information that we have been collecting about the negative impacts of low Librarian salaries on recruitment and retention in the UC Libraries. We have consistently argued that the negative impacts of low salaries is not just felt by the Librarians and their families, but that low salaries are negatively impacting the quality of services being provided by UC libraries to faculty, students, staff, and the general public.
On November 19, Karen Sawislak, UC-AFT Executive Director and Negotiating Team member, presented compelling information that UC has more than enough funds to meet the salary proposal for Librarians presented by the UC-AFT. Using former fact-finding reports issued with respect to other unions in 2005 and 2008 and more current information about the large pool of unrestricted financial assets held by UC, ED Sawislak made a compelling argument that the issue is “not the ability of the UC Administration to fund Librarian proposal, but how they prioritize those needs against other University goals. She also presented an impressive list of groups for whom the University appears to have found funding even after the recent financial “meltdown” in the world market – again reinforcing the point that the issue is not whether UC has money, but how they choose to spend it.
Generally, the response from the University Administration team has been supportive but totally non-committal. A number of times at the table, their chief Negotiator Myron Okada has said that they realize that Librarian salaries lag behind the market and that they would pass on the arguments and information that our team has presented to them to the University officials who provide the Administration team with their parameters for bargaining. It would, however, be misleading to suggest that they have encouraged us to expect a significant salary offer from them in the near future.
We will return to the table for further bargaining on December 10 and we are expecting to see a counter proposal from the University Administration at that time.
Meanwhile, the Negotiating Team appreciates the educational work and actions that increasing numbers of Librarians have been taking on several campuses. We continue to believe that our success at the bargaining table is directly related to the level of activism expressed by the Librarians for whom we are bargaining on each of the UC campuses.
If you have questions about Librarian bargaining, you can contact any member of our Negotiating Team:
Harrison Decker, UCB -- harrison.dekker@gmail.com
Ken Firestein, UCD -- kenfirestein@yahoo.com
Mitchell Brown, UCI -- mcbrown1@gmail.com
Lise Snyder, UCLA -- dlcsnyder@ca.rr.com
Steve Mitchell, UCR -- yellowfinkelp@gmail.com
Chimene Tucker, UCSB -- ladychimene@yahoo.com
Kenneth Lyons, UCSC -- kbplyons@cruzio.com
Dan Suchy, UCSD -- dan.suchy@gmail.com
Karen Sawislak, UC-AFT -- ksawislak@cft.org
Mike Rotkin, UC-AFT -- matlin@cruzio.com
Miki Goral, UC-AFT -- miki@vzavenue.net
By Mike Rotkin, Chief Negotiator for Unit 17
On Wednesday, November 19, at the UCOP office in Oakland, the UC-AFT and the University Administration completed the second day of resumed bargaining. On the table are economic issues including salaries, the level of Professional Development Funds (PDF) available to Librarians on the campuses, child care support and tuition waivers. Our focus at the first two meetings has been on salaries and the economic context that affects the discussion over salaries. On the table currently is the UC-AFT’s proposal to bring UC Librarian salaries up to comparability with those at CSU.
The discussion remains cordial, but there has not yet been any significant movement at the table. Most of the time has been spent with the UC-AFT team presenting information that sets the context for bargaining. We have presented graphs, tables, and charts that demonstrate how far UC Librarian salaries lag behind the market and specifically behind Librarian salaries at CSU, most community colleges, and California public libraries. All of the members of the UC-AFT team have also shared information that we have been collecting about the negative impacts of low Librarian salaries on recruitment and retention in the UC Libraries. We have consistently argued that the negative impacts of low salaries is not just felt by the Librarians and their families, but that low salaries are negatively impacting the quality of services being provided by UC libraries to faculty, students, staff, and the general public.
On November 19, Karen Sawislak, UC-AFT Executive Director and Negotiating Team member, presented compelling information that UC has more than enough funds to meet the salary proposal for Librarians presented by the UC-AFT. Using former fact-finding reports issued with respect to other unions in 2005 and 2008 and more current information about the large pool of unrestricted financial assets held by UC, ED Sawislak made a compelling argument that the issue is “not the ability of the UC Administration to fund Librarian proposal, but how they prioritize those needs against other University goals. She also presented an impressive list of groups for whom the University appears to have found funding even after the recent financial “meltdown” in the world market – again reinforcing the point that the issue is not whether UC has money, but how they choose to spend it.
Generally, the response from the University Administration team has been supportive but totally non-committal. A number of times at the table, their chief Negotiator Myron Okada has said that they realize that Librarian salaries lag behind the market and that they would pass on the arguments and information that our team has presented to them to the University officials who provide the Administration team with their parameters for bargaining. It would, however, be misleading to suggest that they have encouraged us to expect a significant salary offer from them in the near future.
We will return to the table for further bargaining on December 10 and we are expecting to see a counter proposal from the University Administration at that time.
Meanwhile, the Negotiating Team appreciates the educational work and actions that increasing numbers of Librarians have been taking on several campuses. We continue to believe that our success at the bargaining table is directly related to the level of activism expressed by the Librarians for whom we are bargaining on each of the UC campuses.
If you have questions about Librarian bargaining, you can contact any member of our Negotiating Team:
Harrison Decker, UCB -- harrison.dekker@gmail.com
Ken Firestein, UCD -- kenfirestein@yahoo.com
Mitchell Brown, UCI -- mcbrown1@gmail.com
Lise Snyder, UCLA -- dlcsnyder@ca.rr.com
Steve Mitchell, UCR -- yellowfinkelp@gmail.com
Chimene Tucker, UCSB -- ladychimene@yahoo.com
Kenneth Lyons, UCSC -- kbplyons@cruzio.com
Dan Suchy, UCSD -- dan.suchy@gmail.com
Karen Sawislak, UC-AFT -- ksawislak@cft.org
Mike Rotkin, UC-AFT -- matlin@cruzio.com
Miki Goral, UC-AFT -- miki@vzavenue.net
Return to the Table for Econonmic Issues -- November 6, 2008
Bargaining Update for Session on November 6, 2008
By Mike Rotkin, Chief Negotiator
Bargaining between the UC-AFT representing UC Librarians (Unit 17) and the University Administration resumed on November 6, 2008 at the Office of the President in Oakland. Both sides had full teams present. The atmosphere was cordial, but discussions are moving forward slowly.
Most of the time at the bargaining table was spent with the UC-AFT Negotiating Team outlining the arguments we intend to bring to the table. We began the process of passing hard copies of charts and graphs that demonstrate the points we are trying to make. Most of these points raised were summarized in the Talking Points for Librarian Bargaining that we issued earlier:
• UC Librarians seriously lag behind the labor market salaries for librarians as reflected by salaries at CSU, many if not most community colleges, and public libraries.
• UC Librarian wages lag far behind the cost of living over the past decade or two.
• Low wages result in retention and recruitment problems and that are serious at many libraries. Low salaries for Librarians represent an approach that is “penny wide and pound foolish” since training and having many recruitments and failed recruitments are expensive.
• Consequently, many UC libraries have far too many vacancies and this results in workload problems that exacerbate the retention problems as well as reducing the quality of service provided by UC libraries to faculty, students, staff, and the general public.
• In general UC libraries are under-funded and falling in status among research libraries.
• Despite the current financial meltdown, UC has the money to fund a decent salary increase, but unwisely chooses to fund other priorities (primarily new buildings).
• Professional Development is under-funded at UC.
• For the first time in several decades, bad morale is a serious problem at UC libraries and we are seeing Librarians get mobilized and begin to speak out publicly about their issues.
The single largest point we made was that we are not demanding pay increases simply because Librarians deserve them, but because to not increase pay will result in serious harm to the institution of UC libraries. In difficult times, UC still continues to fund pay increases for certain groups. Despite the recent financial meltdown, UC made significant pay increases for hospital workers, attorneys, UC police, and top executives. Institutional needs that we will demonstrate at the table require similar special action for Librarians.
Although no new proposals were put forth by either side, the University Administration made it clear informally that from their perspective there is not a lot of money for a Librarian contract at this point. At the table, they said:
• The Administration recognizes the value of Librarians and the need for pay increases. The UC budget does not allow them to do much to meet this need at the current time, but they will be offering some kind of financial package despite the current financial problems of the University.
• The University has major competing priorities.
• They look forward to the information we promised to share with them (see above), they will take the information seriously, and they will share the information and arguments that we make with “their betters,” i.e. the unnamed group that sets their parameters for bargaining.
Future bargaining dates have now been set for November 19 and December 4.
By Mike Rotkin, Chief Negotiator
Bargaining between the UC-AFT representing UC Librarians (Unit 17) and the University Administration resumed on November 6, 2008 at the Office of the President in Oakland. Both sides had full teams present. The atmosphere was cordial, but discussions are moving forward slowly.
Most of the time at the bargaining table was spent with the UC-AFT Negotiating Team outlining the arguments we intend to bring to the table. We began the process of passing hard copies of charts and graphs that demonstrate the points we are trying to make. Most of these points raised were summarized in the Talking Points for Librarian Bargaining that we issued earlier:
• UC Librarians seriously lag behind the labor market salaries for librarians as reflected by salaries at CSU, many if not most community colleges, and public libraries.
• UC Librarian wages lag far behind the cost of living over the past decade or two.
• Low wages result in retention and recruitment problems and that are serious at many libraries. Low salaries for Librarians represent an approach that is “penny wide and pound foolish” since training and having many recruitments and failed recruitments are expensive.
• Consequently, many UC libraries have far too many vacancies and this results in workload problems that exacerbate the retention problems as well as reducing the quality of service provided by UC libraries to faculty, students, staff, and the general public.
• In general UC libraries are under-funded and falling in status among research libraries.
• Despite the current financial meltdown, UC has the money to fund a decent salary increase, but unwisely chooses to fund other priorities (primarily new buildings).
• Professional Development is under-funded at UC.
• For the first time in several decades, bad morale is a serious problem at UC libraries and we are seeing Librarians get mobilized and begin to speak out publicly about their issues.
The single largest point we made was that we are not demanding pay increases simply because Librarians deserve them, but because to not increase pay will result in serious harm to the institution of UC libraries. In difficult times, UC still continues to fund pay increases for certain groups. Despite the recent financial meltdown, UC made significant pay increases for hospital workers, attorneys, UC police, and top executives. Institutional needs that we will demonstrate at the table require similar special action for Librarians.
Although no new proposals were put forth by either side, the University Administration made it clear informally that from their perspective there is not a lot of money for a Librarian contract at this point. At the table, they said:
• The Administration recognizes the value of Librarians and the need for pay increases. The UC budget does not allow them to do much to meet this need at the current time, but they will be offering some kind of financial package despite the current financial problems of the University.
• The University has major competing priorities.
• They look forward to the information we promised to share with them (see above), they will take the information seriously, and they will share the information and arguments that we make with “their betters,” i.e. the unnamed group that sets their parameters for bargaining.
Future bargaining dates have now been set for November 19 and December 4.
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