Teamsters Oppose UC Pres. Drake’s Curtailment / Furlough Program

Our Union continues to fight UC President Drake’s “emergency” curtailment/furlough program and filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the Public Employment Relations Board due to President Drake “direct-dealing” with Teamsters represented employees without our Union’s involvement, as required by labor law.

As a result of Teamsters’ actions, the UC abandoned its plan for Drake’s curtailment/furlough program at all campuses and announced that each campus could pursue curtailments as necessary. Most campuses are not pursuing unpaid curtailments (furloughs). However, Office of the President (UCOP), UC Path Center and UC Berkeley have notified our Union that they are doing so. Teamsters has sent a demand to negotiate and is proposing alternatives to unpaid furlough days.

According to Teamsters at UC Path, the department is already understaffed, and curtailments and/or layoffs will make work backlogs worse there.

“We have 4,000-case backlog as of yesterday,” said Raymond Gomez, a Teamster who works at UC Path Center. “The forced curtailments do not make sense.”

Teamsters members will speak against curtailments and layoffs at the next UC Board of Regents meeting Jan. 20-21, 2021.

“Teamsters reject the proposed curtailments which are nothing more than furloughs by another name. The UC needs to cut executive bloat and waste, and use its billions in reserves to protect its workforce. Our hard work has built UC into a successful and wealthy institution.”
Jason Rabinowitz
Secretary-Treasurer
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