Our Union’s 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 wasn’t 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 didn’t even collect union dues from worker paychecks in the first years of the union—Local 1695 collected dues by hand until at least 1968!
Together as AFSCME Local 1695—and later as AFSCME Local 3211 following a rechartering in 1983—CX workers made labor history. Workers won higher wages, respect in the workplace, and major changes to the UC’s culture of sexism and racial discrimination, all as part of a public sector organizing wave that swept the country beginning in the ‘70s.
But that worker power unfortunately didn’t 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.
A one-day CUE walkout at UC Berkeley in 2002. Photo by Craig Lee for the San Francisco Chronicle.
Faced with major cuts to higher education spending throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and no longer able to access a larger union’s 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 hadn’t received a general salary increase in three years.
Library Assistant Dianna Sahhar served as CUE’s UC Irvine chapter president and has sat on four CX bargaining teams before and after affiliation. She recalled, “There was such low membership, such apathy. That apathy built up and no one wanted anything to do with the union. CUE couldn’t get workers a raise, CUE couldn’t enforce the contract. Members learned to hate CUE.”
Marina Jurich experienced that apathy first-hand when she was hired as a Program Manager at UC San Diego in 2006. “There was very little communication from CUE,” Marina said of her first years on the job. “You didn’t 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 didn’t know anything. We might as well not have been in the union.”
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 UC’s anti-worker tactics, to little avail. “The UC didn’t respect us as CUE,” 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 we quickly got to work securing major raises for every worker.
“My first significant raise was with Teamsters,” 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. “That really got my attention.”
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, “I feel more empowered by being in our Union…I feel the union not only improves working environments for its members but for non-members, also. We raise the bar for management behavior.”
“Under CUE we had meetings, but they didn’t really amount to anything,” 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. “I don’t 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. We’ll never have what the UC has, but we have enough to give them a run for their money.”
CX Teamsters at a UCB rally in 2022. Slay UC Greed!
48 Years of Skilled Trades Solidarity
Local 2010’s many Skilled Trades units—six units totaling 1,300 members at the UC and 1,100 workers in CSU Unit 6—joined 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 ‘70s, 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 CSU’s 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 ‘80s.
However, SETC couldn’t avoid the consequences of dramatic state budget cuts in the ‘90s. Higher education funding was slashed, with a 21.3% decrease in the state’s 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 CSU’s salary step system in 1995. (Read more about the end of the steps and Teamsters’ successful fight to bring steps back in our previously published winter newsletter, linked here!)
CSU Teamsters on strike across the state during our one-day strike in November 2023.
By the early 2000s, having had to make major compromises and no longer affiliated with LiUNA, SETC struggled to represent California’s Skilled Trades workers. By the 2010s, many workers had come to actively resent their union representation.
“SETC was not helpful before Teamsters came in,” said Robert Olson, a 20-year trades employee of San Jose State University who retired in October 2023. “We 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.”
Union leadership was unresponsive, contracts were poor, and workers were struggling. “I was working for 13 or 14 years without a raise,” Robert said. “A lot of members were trying to get out of the union.”
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 UCSD’s K6 Skilled Trades Unit. He became active with SETC in 2014 and “at first it was all exciting,” he said. But problems quickly became obvious—K6 workers had been without a contract for three years, yet SETC leadership wasn’t feeling the pressure to negotiate.
“At a lot of our bargaining meetings, it seemed like everything was moving slow,” Herman said. “No 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 weren’t fighting for workers.”
Ignored by SETC leadership, UCSD K6 workers voted to leave SETC and affiliate with Teamsters in 2016. As Teamsters, Herman says, “we’re 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… It’s been a 180-degree change with Teamsters.”
UCLA K4 workers saw similar improvements when they, like the K6 unit, left SETC and joined Teamsters in 2017. “With SETC, it almost felt like being ignored,” said Arturo Alvarez, a Steam Operator Engineer at UCLA and employee for 21 years. “They weren’t responding the way you’d think they should. But with Teamsters, you make that phone call, you’re getting a response the same day.”
Carlos Sanchez is a Lead Locksmith at San Diego State University and an employee since 1993. He was initially unsure of SETC’s 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. “Once I got involved with the bargaining committee,” Carlos said, “that changed my perspective. I could see [that with Teamsters] we’re part of a big organization nationwide, and that we have the support we need.”
UCLA K4 Skilled Trades in Teamsters in July 2022, after voting to ratify their current contract. 94% of voting members said YES!
School Principals & Administrators Affiliate for Increased Strength
The Associated Administrators of Los Angeles (AALA) proudly celebrated its 43rd anniversary as an independent union in 2024 and voted to affiliate with Local 2010 in December 2024.
AALA was formed in 1981 when AESA (elementary association), LAASSA (secondary association), CDS (supervisory association) and ACCE (adult association) joined forces to form a single union to represent all middle managers in the Los Angeles Unified School District. In 2010/2011, AALA successfully campaigned to represent LAUSD classified administrators. These administrators were previously District employees without contractual protections or negotiating rights.
The affiliation with Teamsters Local 2010 was confirmed by a large majority of members casting ballots and more than 85% of those voting saying yes, growing our Union to a total of nearly 23,000 workers! The vote was a testament to the strength of our Union and the powerful contracts we win through standing together.
Maria Nichols, the President of AALA who took office in June, 2024, committed to her membership that from Day 1 she would determine the root causes of their increased workloads and extended working hours—and find solutions. The solution Nichols thought would be the most effective, with contract negotiations with LAUSD coming up in January 2025, was to increase the power of the organization through affiliation.
“Students cannot make significant gains when school site leaders are pummeled with time sensitive tasks taking time away from achieving our instructional goals,” Nichols said. “We cannot blame any administrator for wanting change when having to work after hours or on weekends goes uncompensated.”
AALA is proud of its history as it has met the ever-changing requirements of its members for enhanced due process rights, fair and equitable working conditions and healthy benefits. AALA owes a debt of gratitude to the many former members who fought for the rights now protected in our AALA/LAUSD contract.
Our Unity is Our Power
United, Teamsters Local 2010 has become a powerhouse Union in California education and an uplifting force for nearly 23,000 workers across the state. Our more than 15,000 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!
Negotiating the contract for UCSD K6 workers “still was a fight” after affiliating with the Teamsters, said San Diego State University member Herman Ricks. “But 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.”
“With this last contract, we lifted our people up,” 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. “If I need to buy something, I can. It’s huge.”
“I never feel alone with my Teamsters brothers and sisters,” she added. “Since CUE, it’s just night and day.”
Teamsters 2010 rallies with our fellow CSU Unions outside the CSU Board of Trustees Meeting in 2023.
Structure of the Teamsters
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, with 1.4 million members, is one of the largest labor unions in the world. It is also the most diverse union in the U.S.
Today, it would be hard to identify a Teamster on the streets because we are everywhere. The union represents everyone from A to Z – from airline pilots to zookeepers. One out of every ten union members is a Teamster.
LOCAL UNIONS
There are hundreds of Teamsters local unions across North America. The local unions and their members are the heart and backbone of the union.
Unlike other labor unions, the Teamsters Union is structured to promote strong local unions and strong local leaders. Since the locals negotiate most Teamsters contracts and provide most of the services to the members, they keep most of the dues money. Locals retain their own expert labor lawyers, certified public accountants, full-time business agents, organizers, and clerical staff.
The members of each local elect their own officers, devise their own structure, and vote on their own bylaws that are compatible with the International Constitution and Bylaws. While enjoying their independence, the locals benefit from the expertise and assistance of the International Union, and of the various conferences and councils in the union’s structure.
JOINT COUNCILS
Teamsters Joint Councils are set up in areas with three or more local unions. Joint Councils help coordinate Teamsters activities in those areas. They also help solve problems and decide some jurisdictional and judicial matters.
Due to the size of Local 2010, we are part of two Joint Councils. We are part of Joint Council 42 and Joint Council 7.
TRADE DIVISIONS AND CONFERENCES
Trade divisions and conferences aid Teamsters leaders throughout the country who share common interests and problems. They provide an informational clearinghouse for locals that negotiate in the same industry or bargain with the same employer.
Local representatives discuss common problems and concerns at regular trade division and conference meetings.
INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS
At the union’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., the International Brotherhood of Teamsters supports local unions with:
- Coordination of national contract negotiations, political action, and organizing;
- Training and educational programs for Teamsters officers, business agents, stewards, and members;
- Advice and assistance from experienced organizers, negotiators, researchers, attorneys, safety and health professionals, auditors, and communications specialists.
View the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ organizational chart.