October 1, 2024
As Teamsters, weâre stronger than weâve ever been. Our Union represents more than 19,000 workers across California, up 45% from the initial group of just 12,800 CX workers who formed our Union in 2010. The increase in members actively engaged in our Union is even higherâweâve grown from 3,609 active members in 2010, just 29% of represented workers, to 14,518 active members today.
Thatâs more than 75% of our Union who are active and involved in our Union, increasing our membership nearly four times over in the past 14 years and fulfilling the promise made to the independent Unions who voted to affiliate with Teamstersâas part of the strongest Union in the country, weâll have the resources and support we need to win big for every worker.
Our engagement and power have translated directly into higher wages for our members. The Teamsters difference is obvious: the CX unit went from three years of 0% in general salary increases under the independent Coalition of University Employees (CUE) to some of the best contracts in the unitâs history. By the time our current CX contract expires next summer, CX Teamsters will have received an 83% increase in pay since 2011! And theyâre not the only Local 2010 unit to see big wins:
- K3: 25% raise since their first Teamsters 2010 negotiated raise in 2022 to the end of our current contract!
- K4: 57% raise since their first Teamsters 2010 negotiated raise in 2016 to the end of our current contract, after three years of no raises!
- K6: 48% raise since their first Teamsters 2010 negotiated raise in 2016 to the end of our current contract, after a year of no raises!
- K8:Â 26% raise since their first Teamsters 2010 negotiated raise in 2021 to the end of our current contract!
- K9: 39% raise since their first Teamsters 2010 negotiated raise in 2021 to the end of our current contract!
- KM: 34% raise since their first Teamsters 2010 negotiated raise in 2021 to the end of our current contract!
Note: Some of these total raises are affected by the differing durations of our contracts and by equity increases that were negotiated due to some workers not receiving raises in the years prior to joining Teamsters.
UC and CSU workers have come a long way and fought for many years to achieve these wins as a united Union. Though Teamsters Local 2010 was chartered just 14 years ago in early 2010, Teamsters workers began fighting for rights in the workplace in the 1960s and 1970s. Organizing even before California public sector employees were guaranteed collective bargaining rights, workers who have now become UC and CSU Teamsters have been fighting for fair pay, harassment-free workplaces, and protection from layoffs for more than 50 years.
Despite early wins, however, both of the unions that would eventually become Teamsters Local 2010âthe CUE at the UC and the State Employees Trades Council (SETC), representing CSU and UC Skilled Trades workersâfaced major challenges in the 1990s and 2000s that left worker pay stagnant and union membership falling. Only by coming together as a united Teamsters local were we able to capitalize on our power as workers, bring together the resources we needed to fight, and ultimately win the powerful contracts, raises, and benefits we have today!
UC ADMIN STAFF: MAKING HISTORY SINCE 1967
Our Unionâs largest unit is also our oldest. Our Clerical & Allied Services CX Unit, currently representing more than 16,200 clerical and administrative staff at University of California campuses across the state, got its start as a collection of clerical workers at UC Berkeley organizing together in the wake of the civil rights movement.
The workers, nearly all of them women, officially chartered as AFSCME Local 1695 in April 1967 and immediately began to fight for better pay, an end to gender and racial discrimination at UCB, and an end to the Vietnam War. They waged these fights despite having no collective bargaining rights: Although California public employees were given the right to unionize in 1961, it wasnât until 1979 that public employee unions were allowed to collectively bargain contracts with their employers. Until then, the UC was obligated only to meet and confer with AFSCME, with no responsibility to make a binding contract with the union following the meetings. The UC didnât even collect union dues from worker paychecks in the first years of the unionâLocal 1695 collected dues by hand until at least 1968!
Together as AFSCME Local 1695âand later as AFSCME Local 3211 following a rechartering in 1983âCX workers made labor history. Workers won higher wages, respect in the workplace, and major changes to the UCâs culture of sexism and racial discrimination, all as part of a public sector organizing wave that swept the country beginning in the â70s.
But that worker power unfortunately didnât last. In 1995, CX workers voted to disaffiliate from AFSCME and form an independent union, the Coalition of University Employees (CUE), and problems quickly emerged.
Faced with major cuts to higher education spending throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and no longer able to access a larger unionâs financial and legal resources, CUE struggled to retain and represent active members. By the time CUE affiliated with the Teamsters in 2010, only 29% of represented workers were active members of the union and workers hadnât received a general salary increase in three years.
Dianna Sahhar served as CUEâs UC Irvine chapter president and has sat on four CX bargaining teams before and after affiliation. She recalled, âThere was such low membership, such apathy. That apathy built up and no one wanted anything to do with the union. CUE couldnât get workers a raise, CUE couldnât enforce the contract. Members learned to hate CUE.â
Marina Jurich experienced that apathy first-hand when she was hired as a Program Manager at UC San Diego in 2006. âThere was very little communication from CUE,â Marina said of her first years on the job. âYou didnât know who your Union Rep was. You never heard from them, they barely stopped by. It was a drastic change when Teamsters came on board. [Our first Teamsters contract] was the first time we had a contract that was talked about with the membership. Before [with CUE] we didnât know anything. We might as well not have been in the union.â
I feel more empowered by being in our Union. We raise the bar for management behavior.
Run entirely by a series of member committees, with members splitting their time between union work and UC work, CUE struggled for years to stand up to UCâs anti-worker tactics, to little avail. âThe UC didnât respect us as CUE,â Dianna said. Workers were forced to accept three years without raises before voting to affiliate with the Teamsters.
That vote came in 2010, after CUE members organized to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). The former CUE was chartered as Teamsters Local 2010, with full-time staff and access to the resources of the IBT, and quickly got to work securing major raises for every worker.
âMy first significant raise was with Teamsters,â said Marina, who has been a Teamsters steward since 2019 and was instrumental in bringing 1,200 Administrative Officer 2 workers into our Union in 2020. âThat really got my attention.â
One of those 1,200 Admin Officer 2 workers is Dea Dickinson, who served on our 2022 CX Bargaining Team. In a 2023 interview, she said, âI feel more empowered by being in our UnionâŠI feel the union not only improves working environments for its members but for non-members, also. We raise the bar for management behavior.â
âUnder CUE we had meetings, but they didnât really amount to anything,â said Vanessa Collins, a Teamsters steward at the UC Office of the President (UCOP) who was hired in 1999 and began attending CUE meetings in 2001. âI donât think CUE was strong enough [to fight the UC]. With Teamsters, it changed very much. Now we have more people in the Union, more resources, more money, and better attorneys. Weâll never have what the UC has, but we have enough to give them a run for their money.â
48 YEARS OF SKILLED TRADES SOLIDARITY
Local 2010âs many Skilled Trades unitsâsix units totaling 1,300 members at the UC and 1,100 workers in CSU Unit 6âjoined Teamsters 2010 in a series of affiliation votes from 2016 to 2021. Their prior union, like the CX workers under CUE, had a long history of ups and downs as an independent union.
The State Employees Trades Council (SETC) began in 1976, chartered originally as LiUNA Local 1268 and remaining affiliated with LiUNA until the early 2000s. SETC organized to represent state civil service and CSU trades workers throughout the late â70s, organizing a successful trades strike in 1979 that affected California state agencies including the Department of General Services and the Department of Corrections, and winning representation rights for CSUâs Skilled Trades workers in 1982. Major wins followed for SETC members, including protection from contracting out of our work, layoff protections, improved overtime pay, paid vision and dental plans, and strong raises throughout the â80s.
However, SETC couldnât avoid the consequences of dramatic state budget cuts in the â90s. Higher education funding was slashed, with a 21.3% decrease in the stateâs subsidy to the CSU between 1990 and 1995 and comparable cuts to the UC. SETC was forced to accept major losses, including the elimination of CSUâs salary step system in 1995. (Read more about the end of the steps and Teamstersâ successful fight to bring steps back in our previously published winter newsletter, linked here!)
By the early 2000s, having had to make major compromises and no longer affiliated with LiUNA, SETC struggled to represent Californiaâs Skilled Trades workers. By the 2010s, many workers had come to actively resent their union representation.
âSETC was not helpful before Teamsters came in,â said Robert Olson, a 20-year trades employee of San Jose State University who retired in October 2023. âWe had a decent steward [at SJSU] but when he left, it was horrible stewards after that. They negotiated their own contracts without care for other employees. At our campus, becoming a steward was the road to becoming a manager.â
Union leadership was unresponsive, contracts were poor, and workers were struggling. âI was working for 13 or 14 years without a raise,â Robert said. âA lot of members were trying to get out of the union.â
Herman Ricks, a UCSD electrician since 2012 and member of both SETC and Teamsters bargaining teams for UCSD workers, saw the same thing when SETC represented UCSDâs K6 Skilled Trades Unit. He became active with SETC in 2014 and âat first it was all exciting,â he said. But problems quickly became obviousâK6 workers had been without a contract for three years, yet SETC leadership wasnât feeling the pressure to negotiate.
But with Teamsters, you make that phone call, youâre getting a response the same day.
âAt a lot of our bargaining meetings, it seemed like everything was moving slow,â Herman said. âNo one was taking initiative or pushing the issues. As members on the ground, we started getting frustrated. Leaders were satisfied with what they got for themselves and werenât fighting for workers.â
Ignored by SETC leadership, UCSD K6 workers voted to leave SETC and affiliate with Teamsters in 2016. As Teamsters, Herman says, âweâre way more engaged. Not just engaged, but actually making change. Both our contracts [as members of Teamsters 2010] are historic. With SETC we settled for mediocre 3% increases⊠Itâs been a 180-degree change with Teamsters.â
UCLA K4 workers saw similar improvements when they, like the K6 unit, left SETC and joined Teamsters in 2017. âWith SETC, it almost felt like being ignored,â said Arturo Alvarez, a Steam Operator Engineer at UCLA and employee for 21 years. âThey werenât responding the way youâd think they should. But with Teamsters, you make that phone call, youâre getting a response the same day.â
Carlos Sanchez is a Lead Locksmith at San Diego State University and an employee since 1993. He was initially unsure of SETCâs decision to affiliate with Teamsters 2010 in September 2017, following in the wake of UC K4 and K6 trades workers. But becoming active in our Union changed his mind. âOnce I got involved with the bargaining committee,â Carlos said, âthat changed my perspective. I could see [that with Teamsters] weâre part of a big organization nationwide, and that we have the support we need.â
OUR UNITY IS OUR POWER
United, Teamsters Local 2010 has become a powerhouse Union in California higher ed and an uplifting force for 19,000+ workers across the state. Our more than 14,500 active members are a testament to the strength of our contracts and the work our Union Reps and Stewards put in every day for Teamsters workers. Active membership is only possible with an active Union!
With CUE, Marina Jurich said, there was never âvoting or flyers asking us to vote.â Joining a Union that actively encouraged member engagement was a big change. âI was very impressed with that,â Marina said. Thatâs when I realized that my vote does count in my Union.â
That's when I realized my vote does count in my Union.
Robert Olson at SJSU helped start the conversation between Teamsters 2010 and his coworkers after seeing Teamsters 2010 picketing a construction site on campus using non-union labor, in solidarity with another local trades union. âSETC was doing very little about it,â he said. But Teamsters âdrew huge attention to it,â which helped convince Robert and his fellow SJSU workers that the Teamsters would be the right union for them.
âWhen Teamsters took over, 100% [of my coworkers] wanted to join the Union,â Robert said. âWe increased membership just by becoming Teamsters.â
The energy that CSU Skilled Trades workers brought to our Union and to the fight for fair pay at the CSU paid off in a big way. In January of this year, CSU Teamsters fought for and finally won the return of the Unit 6 salary step system after nearly 30 years. That reintroduction of the step system meant not just guaranteed step increases for every CSU Teamster, but an average raise of 16% over the life of the contract for every worker, with raises as high as 40% for positions that had been particularly impacted by wage stagnation.
Our latest CSU contract âis the best contract weâve had since Iâve been in Unit 6,â said Carlos Sanchez, Bargaining Team member and Lead Locksmith at San Diego State University. âItâs the best contract weâve ever negotiated. Having that support [from the Teamsters] and having the lawyers available, it makes a big difference.â
Negotiating for a contract for UCSD K6 workers âstill was a fightâ after affiliating with the Teamsters, said San Diego State University member Herman Ricks. âBut when the UC saw the firepower we were coming with and they saw our leaders actually turning out at campuses, we got the contracts we felt were fair. No more 3%s.â
âWith this last contract, we lifted our people up,â said UC Irvine worker and Local 2010 member leader Dianna Sahhar. She helped negotiate our 2022-2025 CX contract, which has provided 26% raises to 16,000+ CX workers in four years. âIf I need to buy something, I can. Itâs huge.â
âI never feel alone with my Teamsters brothers and sisters,â she added. âSince CUE, itâs just night and day.â
