UC reaches agreement with clerical union

By Jeff Holeman, Public Affairs

15 Nov 00 | The University of California and Coalition of University Employees (CUE) have reached a tentative agreement on a first contract for the clerical workers union. CUE represents approximately 2,700 clerical employees on the Berkeley campus.

The tentative agreement provides retroactive wage increases through September 30, 2000. The contract is scheduled to expire Sept. 30, 2001.

"We are very pleased that an agreement has been reached. My goal, and I believe it is a goal shared across the campus, is to make Berkeley a better place to work," said Chancellor Robert Berdahl. "We've started to implement important initiatives that are going to benefit everyone who works at Berkeley and that will, I hope, help us to become the employer of choice in the East Bay."

The tentative agreement includes a series of adjustments, most of them retroactive.

o Effective 10-1-99: 2 percent salary range adjustment.

o Effective 10-1-99: .8 percent Incentive Award fund money will be built into base salaries.

o Effective 10-1-99: Regular merit increase for career non-probationary employees.

o Effective 7-1-00: 2 percent salary range adjustment.

o Effective 10-1-00: 2 percent salary range adjustment.

o Effective 10-1-00: Regular merit increase for non-probationary career employees.

o Effective 10-1-00: An additional step to the maximum of the salary range.

o Effective 9-1-01 - 1 percent salary range adjustment.

o Plus $100 to each career employee.

The terms of the agreement, including retroactive increases will be applicable to employees in the bargaining unit when the contract is finalized.

The Office of Human Resources is working with Payroll and the Administrative Systems Department to implement the wage terms of the contract when it is finalized. Information on payout dates will be provided to departments at that time.

"After two and a half years of negotiations, CUE has finally reached a tentative agreement for an entirely new, much-improved contract with UC," said Claudette Begin, Berkeley's representative on the CUE governing board. "Those improvements are due to the activism of clericals in Berkeley and across the state and to the widespread support we received from faculty, managers and members of other unions.

Begin said much remains to be done to continue to improve wages and working conditions.

Last week, UC also reached tentative contract agreements with three other unions. On Oct. 30, UC and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees reached a tentative agreement for 2000-01 wages and a new Veterans Day holiday for the service unit. UC reached a similar agreement with the union's Patient Care Technical unit on Nov. 6.

UC and the Federated University Police Officer Association reached a tentative agreement for UC police officers on Oct. 27, on 2000-01 wages and increasing family sick leave for officers.

"We are very pleased to have reached tentative contract agreements in these negotiations," said Sandra Haire, assistant vice chancellor for human resources. "We believe that the efforts that the improvements that have been made in the contracts will help us to retain the many valuable employees we have on campus."