UC Irvine Skilled Trades Bargaining Update, June 4

June Bargaining Update

After having tentatively agreed to several articles on May 25, this past Wednesday, our respective teams got back down to business.

UCI’s Management Team kicked off the day by proposing “No Change” to Articles 10, Promotions & Transfers, and Article 11, Out of Class Assignments, and changes  to Article 4, Non-Discrimination, that  conform with UC President’s policy on Gender (including recognition of gender, gender expression, gender identity, gender transition)  and marriage status.

Steve Huerta, Steward, UCI Medical Center, reminds us, “We bargain non-economic issues before we tackle economics. These are the kinds of issues in which contract language makes a difference to our daily work lives.” 

 

Our Teamsters Bargaining Team made proposals and counter proposals including the following:

Article 4 – Non-Discrimination in Employment

We countered the University’s proposal, proposing political affiliation in the non-discrimination language and  acknowledged Michael Drakes’ Presidential policy on gender. Huerta explained, “Non-Discrimination based on political affiliation is important to the Trades as we represent employees with a variety of political opinions. No one should be discriminated against for their political beliefs.”    

Article 5 – Probationary Period

Our Teamsters team proposed that if temporary workers are hired to career positions, hours worked should count toward probation. This language might come in handy if the University proceeds with its plan to hire temporary painters in the summer and career painters in the fall.

Article 9 – Performance Evaluation

Our proposal includes language changes to the contract article which provide for an evaluation to be a teaching rather than disciplinary tool. 

Article 10 – Promotions, Transfers

Employees who transfer within the UC system, at times, have payroll problems. Human Resources needs to work with UC Path to help us out when errors are made in our paychecks.

Article 25 – Safety

After the past year, safety is a major concern.  We added a number of trainings that should be repeated yearly, including asbestos, active shooter, lockout – tagout, and natural disasters. Current law states that there should be yearly fit testing for N95 and other respirators and we would like that reflected in our contract.

Article 26 – Safety Committee

We proposed Trade involvement in campus and medical center workplace violence prevention committees.

We meet again on June 8th, 9th, 29th and 30th.

 

Bargaining Team Members

Brian Maloney, Chief Steward

Campus: Eric Kuder, Gabriel Zamora, Martin Hernandez

Med Center: Steve Huerta

Share