Our UC-AFT Librarians’ Table Team had an extremely productive day today bargaining at UC Irvine. We began by passing counter proposals for all articles still in our court, including salary, professional development, and more. We had conversations with the University about a few outstanding concerns, and were able to “TA” (that is, come to a “tentative agreement”) on several articles that we have been working on for quite some time.
After an active morning of passing UC-AFT proposals, the University shared a counter proposal “package” of 9 articles at 4pm. Unfortunately, most of these did not have substantive movement from their prior proposals and were essentially re-passes of language we had already countered.
Our bargaining week isn’t over yet! We return to the Zoom bargaining table on Thursday to see if we can close the remaining distance. We are planning a Town Hall for all members this Friday, September 27 at noon: Click to register. We will either be talking about a possible tentative agreement for a ratification vote or discussing what we need to do to push the University to move forward.
Read below for more information on our current status for each article.
Article 3 – Professional Activities and Development
We passed another counter proposal on our professional development article. Last time, the University agreed to set a floor per-capita minimum amount of funding annually (instead of allocating a pot of money for each campus, which has been inconsistently applied and has not kept up with current costs and headcounts). However, the University’s proposed $1,000/year minimum did not meet our expectations. Our proposal today advocated for a $2,000/year floor to guarantee librarians realistic opportunities to engage in creative activities, professional meetings, conferences, seminars, membership fees, and more.
Regarding librarians as Principal Investigators (PIs) on grant proposals, we declined the University’s offer for a joint UCOP/UC-AFT PI committee. UC-AFT insists that librarians must be eligible to submit grant or research proposals designating themselves as PI without the need for requesting exceptions. We emphasized today that the University’s proposed joint committee fails to address our concerns, given that a venue to discuss issues already exists under Article 10 and given that our proposals do not address future issues, but a highly solvable discrepancy right now: the ability to apply for PI status without exception. The current University policy applies to other non-Senate academics (including certain classes of graduate students, visiting scholars, and other similar UC academic employees), and would still require librarian applicants to engage in a rigorous process of discretion, compliance, and approval governed by the University. Our proposal actually streamlines and improves the process while still conforming to all the practices outlined in the UC Contract and Grants Manual.
The University’s 4pm counter proposal did not make any substantive changes from their prior proposal. We are concerned about this lack of movement from weeks ago, since this issue of PI status is one that members have consistently expressed a desire for equitable eligibility that many other academic staff already have.
Article 4 – Definition, Criteria, Terms of Service for Appointment, Merit Increase, Promotion and Career Status
Our counter today continues to assert that the definition of librarian should be updated to match what’s currently in APM 360-4. As a reminder, the contract currently tracks with a previous version of APM 360-4, codified in the 1980s, and does not reflect subsequent technological advances or the current, industry accepted approaches for academic librarianship.
The University’s 4pm counter proposal once again reverted back to the 1980s definition, but with a provision that will allow reopener bargaining to update the definition in our contract once systemwide review of APM 360-4 occurs.
Article 12 – Payroll (formerly Dues) Deduction
We reached a tentative agreement on this “technical” provision that covers how your union dues (which enable us to negotiate and enforce our contract rights) are collected, and how changes and corrections are handled by the University. A “TA”, recall, means this piece of our negotiations is finished, and when all articles are TA’d, all UC-AFT members will vote whether to ratify the contract before it can go into effect.
Article 13 – Salary
We received the University’s last salary counter proposal on September 9. It included:
- A match (at ratification) to the non-represented salary scale, meaning a 6.85% increase;
- A one-time lump sum payment of $1,250 (at ratification) for each full-time librarian (and $675 for any librarian working less than full-time);
- A 3% annual increase each year for the last four years of a five-year contract.
UC-AFT came back today with another counter on Article 13. At the table, we reinforced that U17 librarians deserve more in terms of salary gains to continue our excellent service to the UC and to be able to support our lives and families. We proposed reasonable increases to the salary provisions to help achieve that, and bring us closer to agreement.
- We accepted the 6.85% increase at ratification to match U17 librarians to our non-represented librarian colleagues (and mentioned this is an absolutely baseline equity requirement);
- We proposed a $2,000 one-time ratification lump sum payment for all full-time librarians (prorated for any librarians working less than full time);
- We proposed annual range adjustments of 4% (July 1, 2025), 3.5% (July 1, 2026), 3% (July 1, 2027), and 3% (July 1, 2028).
The University’s 4pm counter proposal included the following details:
- A $1,500 ratification lump sum payment for all full-time librarians
- Annual range adjustments of 3.5% (July 1, 2025), 3.5% (July 1, 2026), 3% (July 1, 2027), and 3% (July 1, 2028).
|
9/9 – University proposal |
9/24 – UC-AFT proposal | 9/24 – University proposal | |
| Match to Non-Rep Libs |
6.85% (starts 2 mos. post-ratification) |
6.85% (starts 2 mos. post-ratification) |
6.85% (starts 2 mos. post-ratification) |
| 1-Time Lump Sum | $1,250 (FT)
$675 (any level of PT) |
$2,000 (FT)
Prorated by apptmt. % (PT) |
$1,500 (FT)
Prorated by apptmt. % (PT) |
| Salary Increase each July 1 | 2025 – 3%
2026 – 3% 2027 – 3% 2028 – 3% |
2025 – 4%
2026 – 3.5% 2027 – 3% 2028 – 3% |
2025 – 3.5%
2026 – 3.5% 2027 – 3% 2028 – 3% |
Article 21 – Vacation
In today’s proposal, we added language to strengthen our ability to receive alternative arrangements to work over winter curtailment. We maintain that as academic appointees, we should have flexibility in fulfilling our obligations and our individual requests for alternative arrangements (e.g. to work remotely if needed over curtailment) should be considered fairly. We also maintain that if a librarian takes leave without pay for any day adjacent to a paid holiday, it will not result in a loss of that holiday pay.
The University’s 4pm counter proposal accepted our addition of needing flexibility in fulfilling our obligations as academic appointees, but rejected our other additions.
Article 25 – Arbitration
We have a tentative agreement: we reached agreement on proposals designed to prevent delays due to preliminary disputes over arbitrability, and to streamline this important process for protecting members’ union rights.
Article 32 – Flexible Work Arrangements
After both sides passed proposals today, we’re pleased to have reached a tentative agreement on this article. Members will be able to grieve any part of this article if procedures are not followed, and will be able to go to arbitration if stated timelines are not met. This article in particular has had a lot of new language added over the last several months, and we’re glad that our members will now have more protections governing their flexible work arrangements, including remote work.
Upcoming Bargaining
Your UC-AFT Librarian Table Team will be back at it again this Thursday on Zoom. We want to keep building the momentum we had today and try to close the distance remaining with the University. Regardless of what happens Thursday, we encourage you all to come to our Town Hall for all members this Friday, September 27 at noon: Click to register. We hope to see you there.
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