Lecturers' Labor Negotiation News

Blog readers who followed our coverage of the last regular Regents meeting will know that in the various public comment sessions, spokesperson for the union representing lecturers at UC spoke about current labor negotiations and a possible strike. Here is an update:

UC-AFT Lecturers Holds Informational Pickets Across UC Campuses for Better Job Security and Pay

October 14, 2021, by Mark Alfred, Holly Rusch and Atmika Iyer, Daily Nexus

The University Council-American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT) is a union that represents the UC’s non-tenure-track teachers and librarians. The union has been trying to renegotiate lecturer contracts for over three and a half years, arguing that the lack of job security and low salaries are unfair compared to CSUs’ and community colleges’ contracts that keep lectures on longer and pay more. The median annual salary of a UC lecturer is $19,067. 

Negotiations between the union and UC management began January 30, 2019. One year later, lecturers’ contracts expired during negotiations, and UC lecturers have been working without one ever since. After over a year and a half of negotiations with management and no agreement made, the union voted in May of this year to authorize a strike, giving union leaders the power to call one when they see fit... 

The union concluded its period of mediation and is beginning the process of fact-finding where both sides submit various documents related to their arguments and have the opportunity to request any records they need. This is a step required by the state government, which the union sees as an effort to “delay and even prevent workers from going on strike,” according to their website. The union is barred from calling a strike related to this contract dispute until the fact-finding process has ended. 

The union is also debating whether or not to strike later this fall regarding multiple unfair labor practice charges they have filed against UC management. The union cites management’s refusal to negotiate with the union regarding additional costs that lecturers incurred beginning in March 2020 as the pandemic forced lectures online. Remote instruction led to accrued costs from buying webcams, upgrading their home internet — and in some cases — having to buy entirely new computers to run class. 

However, the union clarified that any strike occurring this fall would be over unfair labor practice claims, and would not be correlated with their contract negotiations regarding pay and job security, for which the picket was organized...*

Full story at https://dailynexus.com/2021-10-14/uc-aft-lecturers-holds-informational-pickets-across-uc-campuses-for-better-job-security-and-pay/.

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*Note: Under labor law, a strike aimed at correcting an unfair labor practice by the employer (UC) provides legal protection to strikers in that they must be given their jobs back at the end of the strike. In contrast, there are fewer protections for strikers in an "economic strike" aimed at wages and conditions. As might be expected, however, the issue of what kind of strike it really was can be contested with an eventual decision by the California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB).