UC, union workers reach tentative agreement including pay hikes of 20% or more

The University of California has reached a tentative labor agreement with an estimated 13,000 healthcare, research and technical professionals that will boost their pay by 20% or more over the next five years.

The workers are represented by University Professional and Technical Employees-Communications Workers of America. The two contracts are expected to be ratified Aug. 8, and the labor agreements would be effective until the fall of 2024. They include:

• Compensation: Across-the-board increases of 20 percent for healthcare professionals and 22 percent for research and technical professionals over five years, plus performance-based step increases and equity increases as appropriate
• Health benefits: The same rates as other employees, plus a $25 cap on monthly premium increases on UC’s most popular HMO plans
• Retirement benefits: New employees will receive the same pension benefits as current UPTE-represented employees until April 2021, after which time either side may reopen the issue. (This is similar to UC’s 2018 agreement with the California Nurses Association.)

“We are very pleased to have reached these agreements with UPTE, giving our employees the competitive pay and excellent benefits they so deserve,” Peter Chester, the university’s executive director of labor relations, said in a statement. “These employees make significant contributions to UC’s mission and we deeply appreciate their hard work and dedication.”

UPTE President Jamie McDole also praised the progress reached by the two sides.

“UPTE is pleased to have reached an agreement with the university that respects the work of our represented employees while maintaining wages that keep up with the growing cost of living in California,” McDole said via mail. “Both sides worked hard to craft a contract that would meet the needs of both the workers and the university.”

The haves and have-nots

The union has been bargaining with UC for more than two years and has been on strike five times, alleging “the gap between those who have and those who don’t is growing at the university.”

They referenced a union report, “Pioneering Inequality,” which shows that the top 10% of UC employees make more than the bottom 50%.

The report additionally notes that blacks are disappearing from UC’s service and patient care workforce. In 1996, blacks comprised 19% of that workforce. But by 2015 that dropped to 12% — a 37% decline, the study said.

Big salaries for top execs

At a UC Board of Regents meeting in May, a salary of $425,000 was proposed for newly hired UC Santa Cruz Chancellor Cynthia Larive, the union said, while a salary of $350,000 was suggested for Monroe Gorden Jr., UCLA’s vice chancellor of Student Affairs.

“It’s no wonder the university is saying tuition needs to be increased when they are paying their vice chancellor of student affairs so much money,” the union said.

In a UPTE press release issued last week, UC researcher Samantha Renusch said the main issue taking place is “the Walmartization of our public institutions.”

The university’s leadership is bloated and overpaid, Renusch said, while UC is privatizing the front line work that is leading the research, providing healthcare directly to patients and teaching students.

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