Teamsters Workers Stacking Up Wins!
At UC and CSU campuses across the state, Teamsters are making management pay for any violations to our Union contracts! Read up on some of our recent victories below and remember to always reach out to a Union Steward or Representative if you need help at work. By holding bosses accountable and exercising our rights in the workplace, we make our Union strong!
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"Our Union will always fight for our members, whether they've been Teamsters for twenty years or two days. Our Teamsters contracts are strong because we enforce them every time, no matter what the UC and CSU think they can get away with. With the help of our incredible Union Stewards and the power of our members, we are Teamsters strong!"
UCLA Teamster says ‘NO!’ to retaliation!
At UCLA Health, management gave Teamsters Steward, DeiAndra Green. an ultimatum: either she accepted a transfer from Irvine to Santa Monica with no salary increase, no step raise, and no accommodation for the significantly longer commute, or she’d be laid off. This was the cherry on top of years of harassment and discrimination, and clear retaliation in response to a grievance DeiAndra had previously filed for out-of-class work. Our Teamsters sister decided to fight back!
With the help of our Union, DeiAndra threatened to file an Unfair Labor Practice against management for retaliation against a Union Steward. Our Union also demanded the clinic turn over all information on how often Black employees, like our sister, had been hired and laid off. The clinic quickly dropped their ultimatum, promoted our sister to Admin 2 (and shortly after Admin 3!), and provided her a step raise. At $5 more per hour and with a shift schedule that worked for her needs, our sister was happy to accept the transfer to an office without such a history of harassment!
“The Union stayed the course,” DeiAndra said about her fight for fair treatment, with the help of Union Rep Stephanie Aguilar. “We didn’t give up.”
More wins for Medical Center Teamsters:
- A CX Teamster at UCLA Health took a $1/hr pay cut after taking a higher position, having been told by a recruitment officer that the new position could only pay, at maximum, the Step 2 pay rate. When she informed her Union Rep, Local 2010 immediately escalated the situation to management, making sure our sister Teamster was given a step up in her salary rate, with back pay. And we reminded UC Labor Relations that our CX contract guarantees a 20 step salary system—and recruitment officers need to read the damn contract!
- Local 2010 filed a grievance against UC Davis Medical Center’s Department of Radiology after the department began giving out CX work to workers not in our bargaining unit. Even when CX Teamsters volunteered for the overtime associated with this project work, they were turned down. Local 2010 filed a second grievance on behalf of one worker who volunteered, winning two weeks worth of pay for the overtime that should have gone to CX workers by right!
- Also at UC Davis Medical Center, a CX Teamster won back pay for THREE YEARS of missed lunches after filing a grievance against the Medical Center with Local 2010!
Huge win for Local 2010 and workers’ rights at State hearing!
A California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) Judge issued a decision in February blasting University of California for multiple violations of California labor law by sending mass communications that interfered with UC employees’ rights to form or join a union!
In an extremely rare move, the Judge also ordered the University of California to pay Teamsters Local 2010 legal fees, finding that UC’s violations were intentional and egregious.
Fighting contracting out at CSU!
When our CSU Skilled Trades members demand real salaries that don’t leave them looking for housing two hours away from campus, the CSU says they haven’t got the cash. But when they see an opportunity to contract out our members’ work, the CSU has money to spare. Across the state, the CSU keeps trying to pay contractors to perform Teamsters work and our Union keeps enforcing our Teamsters contract, returning money to our workers and reminding the CSU that contract violations always cost!
Here’s just a few of the contracting-out wins CSU Teamsters have won after filing Union grievances against the CSU:
- At CSU East Bay, 14 Teamsters Painters, Carpenters, Electricians, and Maintenance Mechanics won more than $32,000 total in retroactive overtime pay after CSU EB contracted out our member’s work on a gymnasium renovation ahead of March Madness!
- A Teamsters electrician at CSU Monterey Bay won $9,000.
- Three Teamsters painters at CSU San Francisco won more than $3,000 each after their painting work was contracted-out while they waited to be rehired off of CSU SF’s layoff rehire list. All members have since been rehired and paid for the work that should have been theirs!
- Also at CSU San Francisco, two other Teamsters painters won $1,200 each following a Union grievance.
Plus, more wins for CSU Teamsters:
- A Teamsters Painter at CSU Monterey Bay had been performing Supervisor duties without Supervisor pay since the Painter Supervisor in his unit retired. After he filed a grievance with the help of his Union Rep, the CSU agreed to settle a week before the grievance would have gone to arbitration and gave our brother a 5% base-building raise retroactive to two months, as well as a desk audit to formalize his expanded duties as a Supervisor!
- At CSU Stanislaus, a Skilled Trades Teamster was denied a portion of the lump sump payment agreed upon in our 2022 Teamsters contract extension because he’d recently transferred campuses. After he filed a grievance with the help of our Union, the Chancellor’s Office told the campuses to figure it out and our member received his lump sum in full!
UCLA Clinic workers join the Union!
Forty-four Community Health Program Representatives (CHPR) who support patient care at the Venice Family Clinics of UCLA Health joined the Teamsters Union in May following the settlement of a complaint Teamsters Local 2010 filed with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) in February 2022.
UCB Teamster wins six months of backpay!
At UC Berkeley, a CX Teamster came to her Union Rep in need of serious help. Six months previously, this Teamster’s work on a time-limited project had wrapped up and the UC had totally failed to pay her ever since. Not only that, but she lost her benefits along with her pay, and had been neither officially fired nor laid off, leaving her in a dangerous limbo. With expenses mounting, she turned to our Union.
Local 2010 immediately jumped into action, winning our member six months of back pay with benefits, service credit, and retirement credit! The UC also offered our member two other positions at Berkeley after the Union stepped in, though our sister Teamster decided against further work with the UC. Now formally laid off with all of the pay she’d earned, she’s free to look for other opportunities!
Teamsters fight hard for UC Teamsters!:
- At UCSC, Local 2010 filed a grievance against the UC with a Teamster who received an “unsatisfactory” performance evaluation despite no prior notice of deficiencies in their work. After our Union submitted the grievance, the Teamster’s department changed their evaluation to “met expectations.”
- At UC Merced, a CX Teamster won a settlement after being denied the $3,000 lump sum payment that was guaranteed in last year’s CX contract. An error at UC Path that incorrectly labelled the member as still on probation was cleared up after our Union stepped in. We refuse to pay for the UC’s mistakes!
Union supports Teamsters Steward after winter flooding!
Teamsters solidarity doesn’t stop when we leave the workplace. After Teamsters 2010 member and UCSC Steward Paulette Carney was affected by this spring’s major flooding, Local 2010 and Joint Council 7 were proud to provide Paulette with disaster relief funding to help her get back on her feet.
“Thank you, Teamsters 2010 and JC7 for your tremendous support and kindness that was shown to me after my home suffered two floods during the Santa Cruz Winter Storms,” said Paulette. “I am now able to pick up the pieces and rebuild thanks to the help I received from my Teamsters Brothers and Sisters!
