| UPTE HX Bargaining Bulletin #8 |
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2006 We also had more discussion on UPTE's need to be able to find our members. We have HX members located in hundreds of different buildings, some off in small labs or clinics all up and down the state. Some locations are almost impossible to find. It is a union's right to have access to its members and we are fighting for this right. UC is saying that they don't have any way to tell us where any of their employees are at any particular time! On a similar issue, we are trying to get new job openings posted within the department. This is so that all employees in any department are all equally notified about new positions opening up. We have had situations recently where a new position within a department was created and only certain employees were asked to apply. By the time the rest of the employees heard about it, the position was filled. Or, a new position was opened up and someone outside the UC system was hired into the position before anyone knew about it. Again, UC is arguing that it is too difficult for them to do this! The compromise was that UC provided us with a list of local posting procedures by campus. Other issues we are still working on are Professional Development. UC doesn't feel that it needs to provide courses or time off for employees to fulfill their continuing education requirements. They want employees to take UC offered courses, which may or may not be relevant. And, they don't feel that this is a problem. They feel employees can just take courses on their time off, even though we contractually have 40 hours of professional development time available. We would love to hear about people's problems and efforts to actually use their 40 hours professional development time. Also, we could really use letters, petitions, etc. to show UC the problems their healthcare workers are having trying to stay compliant with state and federal regulations needed to continue working. They also gave us some handouts from the UC web site regarding their plans to start having employees pay into the pension plan. They told us that they would have a formal proposal the next time we meet. For more information on their plans, please see the UC web site, and also UPTE's web site . This HX bargaining team is committed to fighting any money being taken out of our paychecks to pay into the currently fully funded pension plan. We presented an updated and more complete compensation proposal. We had further discussion on our proposal. We were told that UC will present their counter compensation proposal the next time we meet. We had a Clinical Laboratory Scientist and a Genetic Counselor attend this session. Again we would like to encourage anyone to come to the bargaining sessions. HXers are welcome to participate. It would really be helpful to have people present arguments and material as to why they feel they are poorly paid in comparison to others in their job title; why we need fair and respectful treatment by our supervisors; any issues anyone has had in getting accommodations for any permanent or temporary disability; unreasonable difficulties or denials of time off for professional development; or any other issue. We will be at UCLA from August 28th to August 31st. Your Bargaining team, Your bargaining team, |