UC-AFT Faculty Bargaining Update #4 UC San Diego July 19

UC-AFT Faculty Bargaining Session #4

July 18th, 2019

UC San Diego

UCOP ignores need for adequate office space and student confidentiality

After demonstrating at our last bargaining session that they intend to purge more and reappoint fewer pre-continuing lecturers, UCOP is now demonstrating that they also intend to deny us the basic support we need to adequately serve our students. Many UC-AFT faculty offices are shared by six or more lecturers, making student conferences impossible and violating students’ privacy rights. We have proposed office space consistent with existing campus guidelines and OSHA standards; clean and safe classroom infrastructure so students can learn without distraction; the ability to be Principal Investigators on grants that deliver money and prestige to the UC; guaranteed access to library, email, and teaching resources before classes start; and equity with tenure-track faculty in TA and reader support. UCOP ignored nearly all of our proposals, asserting that “a locker, shared drawer or desk...could do the trick” in lieu of adequate office space. They even suggested that we give our confidential documents to an administrator to store for us, then doubled down by proposing to take away our right to substitute instructors.

Management lies about lecturer rights

As if refusing to engage with our reasonable proposals were not enough, UCOP was not above unsupported claims and even outright lies. They claimed that the UC is prohibited from providing free or reasonably-priced parking because “A Master Plan for Higher Education in California” (1960) requires campus parking services to be self-supporting. False, false, false. The UC is not bound by the Master Plan. If it were, it would have to stop charging us fees to go to work, because the Master Plan recommends that “Greatly increased salaries and expanded fringe benefits, such as health and group life insurance, leaves and travel funds to attend professional meetings, housing, parking and moving expenses, be provided for faculty members” (pp. 12, 135).

As one UC-AFT observer said afterwards, management’s research skills wouldn’t pass muster in any of our classes. UCOP’s behavior is disrespectful and wasting valuable bargaining time.

UC-AFT faculty fight for parental leave and academic leave

Lecturers should be able to become parents without enduring hardship and risking their careers. Our current contract presents a hodgepodge of mostly unpaid maternity leave--and provides little support for non-birth and adoptive parents. Lecturers’ low salaries simply do not allow for the luxury of unpaid leave. UC-AFT calls for six months’ paid leave for all new parents. We must expand current coverage. It is unacceptable that new parents must ask themselves, which is more important: to bond with a new child? or be able to provide for them?

We also call for faculty equity with the addition of Academic Leave to the MOU. Analogous to a sabbatical, Academic Leave would permit UC-AFT faculty to pursue the rigorous intellectual work necessary to stay on the cutting edge of their fields. Academic Leave would empower UC-AFT faculty to gain new skills, develop new courses, or update existing courses with the latest technology.

The executives and lawyers from UCOP weren’t very interested in discussing our leaves proposals. Instead, they whispered, snickered, and rolled their eyes for a solid hour. Their flagrant contempt is why we need to keep fighting for #facultyequity.