We were back in action today at UCLA after our Summer hiatus. It was a pretty disappointing way to end July. (There was a brief moment of levity when a giant Green June beetle flew into the negotiating room this afternoon, but that was about it.) Exasperated by the University’s failure to pass serious and competitive proposals, our Table Team decided today not to extend the contract past July 31, 2024, when the last extension expires. As a response to the University’s intransigence on key issues like salary and professional development funding, and waiting months for their anemic financial proposal, we are sending them the message to get serious by going out of contract on August 1st.
As we turn up the heat on the negotiations, it’s important that all UC-AFT librarians make it clear how important progress at the table is for a fair contract. How can you get involved? Come to the Town Hall on Wednesday, July 31 at noon to talk about the state of bargaining. Register here! Learn about where we are now and what you can do to help us get the contract we deserve.
UC-AFT Proposals
Article 29 – Waiver
We passed a new proposal for the Waiver that affirms LAUC’s role as advisor to the University on matters of professional governance for UC Librarians. Our current proposal focused on UC-AFT’s right to meet and confer regarding changes to the APM that intersect with our contract – APM 011 (Academic Freedom), APM 210, and APM 360-4.
New Article – Academic Freedom
We also introduced a new article on Academic Freedom that aligns closely with APM 011. Currently, academic freedom is in the contract through a side letter, which predates the formal adoption of APM 011. Our proposal affirms the procedures in APM 011 for librarians.
University Proposals
After months of silence, the University passed an “economic package” of several counterproposed articles, including salary, benefits, professional development funds, vacation, and holidays. Only two of these articles had any new economic implications, with the other articles either going back to current contract language or a previous proposal, thus rejecting our proposed innovations.
Article 3 – Professional Activities and Development
Back in January we proposed a minimum $3,600 annual professional development allotment for every librarian in our bargaining unit. Today we finally received a response from the University. Instead of recognizing the economic costs of librarians’ required professional service and creative activity, the University countered with a paltry offer to only increase the existing overall campus allotment by about 20%. You can see the University’s lackluster numbers below. It’s completely inadequate to support the professional development needs of librarians.
Berkeley $60,442 $72,530
Davis $29,390 $32,268
Irvine $25,886 $31,063
Los Angeles $74,922 $89,906
Merced $5,409 $6,491
Riverside $23,074 $27,689
San Diego $26,563 $31,876
San Francisco $7,302 $8,762
Santa Barbara $20,271 $24,325
Santa Cruz $17,784 $21,341
The University’s proposal still retains inequitable structures by allocating arbitrary amounts to each campus, rather than an equal amount per individual librarian across the system, as our team had proposed.
The University also rejected our proposal to be automatically eligible for principal investigator (PI) status as librarians, as several other categories of academic employees already hold. Their team asserted unequivocally that faculty are the only UC academic appointees who are required to perform “independent scholarly research and to create new knowledge.” We strongly reject this argument, though we’re not surprised since it follows the University’s recurring assertion throughout bargaining that research is not one of the functions of librarians in the UC system. This is a disturbing theme which seems to show a lack of awareness of the academic and research contributions of librarians, and potentially corrosive to our academic status.
Article 13 – Salary
The University gave a much-awaited counter to our salary proposal, which we passed on March 5. You’ll recall our proposal offered a four-year contract with an $8,000 increase at ratification for every point on the salary scale, 6% increases every subsequent year, removing the bottom two steps from the Assistant and Associate Librarian ranks, a me-too clause to match any general range salary adjustment given to non-represented librarians, and a guarantee of accessing off-scale salary raises to the same extent they are given to any non-represented librarian.
The University rejected our proposals to match the general salary adjustments and off-scale raises of non-represented librarians with a “me too” clause, and offered a five-year contract with a 5% raise at ratification, then 3% raises each year. This fails to close the (historically large!) current 6.85% salary gap between us and our non-represented colleagues, let alone keep up with inflation.
Article 14 – University Benefits
The University essentially went back to our current contract language on Article 14, rejecting our proposal for a cap on medical premium hikes that shocked our membership in January.
Article 21 – Vacation and Article 22 – Holidays
The University made no new changes to their previous proposals from February (Article 22) and March (Article 21). They continue to deny both our thoughtfully drafted proposal for personal floating holidays, and our assertion that librarians should have an option to work remotely instead of being forced to take vacation days over winter curtailment.
Article on Sabbaticals
The University outright rejected our proposal for a new article laying out sabbaticals for librarians, stating that the current Regental Policy 2305 precludes non-faculty academic appointees from participating in sabbaticals.
U17 Town Hall: July 31 on Zoom
U17 librarians are encouraged to participate in the bargaining Town Hall on Wednesday, July 31 from 12-1pm. Please RSVP now. After the University’s flat counters to our sound and reasonable economic proposals, we need to come together to plan the actions we must take to get us the contract we deserve. We’ll also talk about what going out of contract right now means.
Upcoming Bargaining: August 5 on Zoom
Our next bargaining session will take place on Zoom on Monday, August 5, starting at 1pm. RSVP today. The table team will be tackling some of the outstanding articles, including flexible work arrangements.
And we’ll be responding to the University’s economic proposals at a following session in August. We will share the Zoom registration registration link for our August 12 date sometime next week. Now more than ever, we need to pack the Zoom room and show the University that librarians need—and deserve—major improvements to our salary, professional development funding, benefits, and more.
In solidarity,
The UC-AFT Unit 17 Table Team
Kendra K. Levine, Bay Area, Chief Negotiator
I-Wei Wang, Bay Area
Timothy Vollmer, Bay Area
Jared Campbell, Davis
Mitchell Brown, Irvine
Xaviera Flores, Los Angeles
Miki Goral, Los Angeles
Joy Holland, Los Angeles
Jerrold Shiroma, Merced
Carla Arbagey, Riverside
Michael Yonezawa, Riverside
Tori Maches, San Diego
Laurel McPhee, San Diego
Jenny Reiswig, San Diego
Kristen LaBonte, Santa Barbara
Alix Norton, Santa Cruz
Tamara Pilko, Santa Cruz
Jess Waggoner, Santa Cruz