TAPS' denial of year-long parking permits resolved!

Dear Members,

TAPS, the University office in charge of parking, was recently refusing to sell our members year-long parking permits.  The union objected, and the administration has now agreed that this policy was wrong and has rescinded it.  You can now purchase a year-long parking permit at the TAPS office.  Furthermore, if you were denied a year long permit and purchased a one-month permit, you can have that purchase put toward a year-long permit.  All you need to do is go into the TAPS office to make the exchange. 

The administration caused this problem when it misapplied our contract.  Our contract provides that we be given a forty-five day notice before the University raises our parking rates.  TAPS did not provide this notice in a timely manner.  Rather than following the contract and taking the responsibility for this mistake, the administration chose to punish our membership. It denied our members the ability to purchase year-long permits until after the forty-five day period.  Fortunately, a member pointed out this problem to us right after it arose, and we were able to correct it.

TAPS chose to explain their decision by blaming us. A misinformed TAPS customer-service employee told at least one member that this problem was the fault of the union. It is likely that others were told the same thing. Sadly this is a familiar story. UC has a habit, on all levels, of blaming the union or its contract for its own policies and errors. This creates a trail of misinformation that we then have to correct.  
 
Therefore, we would like to know if you were told something that blamed us for the administration's failure to allow you to purchase a year-long permit.  We need to keep track of these types of interactions so that we can document them. We can then use that documentation to work towards eliminating these practices. Thanks in advanced for any input that you can provide.

Best,
Tarone