Yesterday, UC and the UAW agreed to "private mediation" with regard to the current student worker strike. Below is the announcement. Commentary follows after that:
University of California and United Auto Workers enter private mediation
UC Office of the President, December 9, 2022
After months of negotiations, and seven formal requests by the University of California to engage a private mediator, the University is pleased to announce that the United Auto Workers (UAW) agreed today (Dec. 9) to enter private mediation with the University. This joint move to mediation is designed to assist the two parties in overcoming recent negotiation gridlock.
“The University is pleased that the UAW has agreed to neutral private mediation so that we may resolve our differences and end the strike that has been impacting our students, faculty, and staff,” said Letitia Silas, executive director of systemwide labor relations. “We remain committed to securing a fair and reasonable contract with the union that honors the hard work of our valued graduate student employees. With the help of a neutral mediator, we hope to secure that agreement quickly.”
Since spring of 2022, the University and the United Auto Workers have held more than 60 bargaining sessions, including nearly daily formal and informal sessions since the strike began on Nov. 14.
The University recently offered the UAW generous proposals that would raise salaries for all graduate student employees by 12.5 to 48.4 percent over the course of the next three years. The majority of these employees would receive an average three-year salary increase of 26 percent, not including annual experience-based increases. The offers also include increased child care reimbursements, campus fee remissions, and other benefits. Student employees with 25 percent or greater employment with the University already receive full coverage of tuition, student services fees, and health care premiums. The proposals offered by the University to the UAW would place UC graduate student employees squarely among or above the most highly compensated student employees at any public research university in the nation.
A timeline for mediation will be set soon. During that time, both parties will be prohibited from speaking publicly about the negotiations... [Boldface added]
Full news release at https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/university-california-and-united-auto-workers-enter-private-mediation.
Some comments:
Private mediation simply means that the mediator will not be coming from a government agency. There is no word on who that mediator might be. A mediator does not have the authority to impose a settlement. Mediation differs in that regard from what is called interest arbitration. Presumably, both sides will have to agree on a suitable mediator and such a person might be someone who under other circumstances might do professional arbitration. Or it could be some respected person with a different background.
A mediator is more than a go-between. A good mediator will try to get each side to understand the viewpoint of their opposite number. The mediator may reframe issues to make compromise more acceptable. According to the news release, the parties will not be making statements about the negotiation, a condition that a mediator might insist on to prevent divisive statements from undermining the negotiations.
UC had earlier suggested mediation. There may be an assumption on the UC side that a mediator will surely see things as UC management does and will "explain" that reality to the union. UC may be disappointed if there was such an expectation. The role of the mediator is not to take sides.
Although arbitration and mediation are different processes, a mediator might at some point suggest that certain difficult issues might be deferred to an arbitration process of some type.
As it happens, those workers covered by the tentative deal between UC and UAW Local 5810 (postdocs and researchers) should be finishing their ratification vote. The outcome of that vote, either supporting or rejecting the tentative deal, could affect the other negotiations and the mediation process.
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https://ia601402.us.archive.org/25/items/big-ten/mediation.mp3
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