Teamsters working together to ruffle feathers at UCSB!
Just before our Bargaining Team passed our opening proposal for fair raises for essential workers, Skilled Trades Teamsters working at UC Santa Barbara came out in force Jan. 20 for an informational picket to show UCSB administration we will fight for the wages we deserve!
Members walked from parking lot 16 to Cheadle Hall and posted leaflets on the front of the building to let Chancellor Yang know we are not willing to settle for inadequate raises or be ignored. We will continue to make some noise and draw attention to the issues.
“Our voices have been heard! Thanks to the great turn out of our Teamsters members marching on Cheadle Hall. We left the Chancellor a message and got his immediate attention. They know we are serious and demand to be heard. Teamster Power!”
Our action was well timed since the UC demonstrated its misplaced priorities regarding pay shortly thereafter. On Jan. 24, the UC Board of Regents approved raises for all nine UC chancellors, including UCSB Chancellor Yang, who will now be paid $579,750 per year, a 28.4% increase over his already six-figure salary.
In an article in the Santa Barbara Independent, Regent Jonathan Sures was quoted as saying in the Jan. 19 Governance committee (bold emphasis added by Teamsters): “To me, this was an issue of pay equity. We have an obligation to pay our people well and we should pay our chancellors well.”
Our union will not stand for anything less than fair pay for our members who have been on the front lines keeping the campus running throughout this pandemic. We hope that the campus extends its essential workers the same generosity it has shown to its already highly paid Chancellor.
“If UC can afford to give six-figure raises to already high-paid executives, they can afford to give fair increases to the hard-working UCSB Skilled Trades Teamsters, who have gotten no raises for two years while working on the front lines keeping UC running through the COVID pandemic,” said Teamsters Local 2010 Secretary-Treasurer Jason Rabinowitz.
“Management was upset about the posters that we put on Cheadle Hall, but they know now that we are serious. It's time for us, the Skilled Trades at UCSB, to get the fair pay that we deserve!”
Rabinowitz outlined our Bargaining Team’s proposal for Article 46 – Wages, which includes wage increases, hazardous duty pay and a critical skills bonus plan. Rabinowitz spoke on the need for UCSB to pay fair wages to its essential workers.
Teamsters 2010 Research Analyst Alex Vermie detailed how far behind UCSB is on wages for Skilled Trades workers. For example, UCSB‘s journey pay rates overall lag corresponding pay rates at other UC campuses by 15.8% on average. View all the valuable information in this presentation by clicking here.
As of our Jan. 21 bargaining session:
- 42 articles have been Tentatively Agreed (TA) upon by both Teamsters and management
- 12 articles are awaiting response from management
- 1 article for which our team needs to provide a response to management
- 7 articles or side letters yet to be discussed
“Through banding together outside of the Chancellor’s office, we ensured our presence is known. We will do what it takes to achieve a fair and just contract.”
In Unity,
Our Teamsters Local 2010 UCSB Skilled Trades Bargaining Team:
Chief Negotiator Tanya Akel, Teamsters 2010
Drew Scott, Teamsters 2010
Melina Lopez, Chief Steward
Andy Taff
Eddy Melendez
Danny Diaz
Mike Tosta