UC-AFT Statewide Executive Board Candidate Statements 2013-14

President

Bob Samuels, Incumbent

As President of UC-AFT, I will continue to work to help defend the rights and professional status of all members in Units 17 and 18. In the last few years, I have brought our issues to the national media.  I have also served as the President of the CFT council for universities, and I worked with Governor Brown to Pass Prop 30 and to get new language in the state budget requiring the university to disclose how each campus spends state funds.

While we have faced tremendous threats to the jobs of our members during the last several years, it is important to point out that during my term in office, we have seen substantial improvement in the salaries and security of people in both units, and on the grievance and enforcement side, we have won several cases, and we have also won important arbitration and Public Employment Relations Board cases.  I want to thank Alan Karras and our staff for their work in these areas.

I also want to thank Miki Goral and Mike Rotkin for their continued leadership in helping to protect the status of librarians.  Our recent negotiations over the Unit 17 contract have not been easy, and we will continue to work on improving the organized strength of this unit. Miki has also been instrumental in our effort to improve the financial stability of UC-AFT.

Finally, I would like to continue to professionalize our union and work with our Executive Director to help support and coordinate our staff, while I work with Axel Borg on increasing our political clout. I look forward to increasing the activism of all members in our union.

Vice President for Grievances

Alan Karras, Incumbent

In many ways, the office of Vice President-Grievances is the least visible of our union’s statewide officers.  Tasked with overseeing the contracts and their enforcement, I have spent nine years asserting contract claims to sometimes befuddled, sometimes hostile, and even, occasionally, receptive UC administrators. Every year contract disputes arise, are fought over, and get resolved, generally to the satisfaction of our members. It is true that sometimes disputes take longer to resolve than they ought; it is also true that sometimes we learn of a problem too late to help or we have contractual language that doesn’t support our desired goals.  As the person in the Union with the best command of the contracts, their histories, and hidden meanings, I provide the necessary expertise to ensure that negotiated language is consistently enforced across the state. I go to grievance meetings when asked and I work closely with the staff and stewards. I thank them for their efforts.  I also work closely with our attorneys to make sure that we get the most for our members’ money and work to control costs. On most campuses, the number of grievances is down year over year. We must be doing something right.

I have also worked very closely with UC Administrators, both on the campuses and at UCOP. In order to ensure consistency, UC’s constituent parts talk to each other, just as our staff do. And very often those parts have talked to me. There is regular communication, and there have been efforts to craft solutions to problems on one campus by using solutions from another. Filing grievances is the first step, but resolving them takes considerable more time and energy, since it is very rare that UC will say, “you’re right.” I have the required knowledge and flexibility to find a solution to most problems.  I have learned to whom to talk, and when contact is appropriate. I thank my e-board colleagues, Bob Samuels, Axel Borg, Mike Rotkin, and Miki Goral, for their support and the space to resolve problems in the most effective ways.  I look forward to continuing to do so. 

Vice President for Grievances

Jon Lang, Candidate

There is no doubt we are facing a crisis.  The economic pain resulting from the Great Recession has been deployed against public sector employees and their unions, including all of us.

Our union worked hard with many other unions to pass Proposition 30 to ensure that state funds would once again flow to the university: to support and protect not only our jobs but our public education system and our students.  We knew it wasn't enough, but it was a start.

Now we continue to face shrinking salaries, rising health costs and cuts in retirement benefits.

Less visible are the everyday struggles to enforce contract protections. The union must confront the churning of lecturers and the shifting of librarians out of the bargaining unit.  We must fight to protect due process rights and to ensure that the contributions of non-Senate academics in the UC system are recognized and rewarded.

If I am elected Vice President of Grievances I would have the following priorities:

1) While it is true that many parts of the contract should be revised to ensure stronger protections, we also need to work at the grassroots level within departments, for example, to strengthen excellence and merit review processes. One of my goals would be to facilitate such grassroots level work.

2) We need to undertake a systematic review of hiring patterns to ensure that churning is brought to light and challenged.

3) I pledge to work with local boards and local grievance stewards to schedule regular training sessions and to identify local priorities.

4) I would like to strengthen communication between systemwide and local leaders, and increase transparency in system-wide decision making processes.

I am a lecturer in the College Writing Programs at UC Berkeley (where I was in the “pre-6” status for 12 years), so I understand the frustrations of employment in the UC System. In the past two years I have served as President of the local Berkeley Board and for 2.5 years I’ve been a local grievance steward as well.

Vice President for Legislation

Axel E. Borg, Incumbent

12 March 2013

I have served as Vice President for Legislation of the University Council of the American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT) for three years. I have decided to run again for election in that same office. The last three years have seen many changes in both the working conditions that we face in the University of California and the challenges that we face as union members. I look forward to continuing to serve librarians and lecturers across the University of California System.

Over the last year I have continued to work with Bob Samuels on getting more budget accountability and transparency in the University of California and especially in the Office of the President (UCOP). I have been working with CFT to explore ways in which we can increase representation in the UC System. I have been working closely with Mike Rotkin to develop the capacity within our union to empower our members and by doing so, empower our union.

I believe strongly in unions and their role in self empowerment. Unions function best when members are involved, it is how I came to this position myself and I feel that by my standing for the rights of others, others will stand for me. I believe that the promise of the University of California as the leading public university in the world, has been betrayed by the current leadership, and our Union, UC-AFT, has taken a leadership role in fighting to restore that promise of public higher education. I seek to make others aware of our efforts and of the broken promise through legislative action. I continue to learn from our colleagues on Executive Board. Our Union is fortunate to have members who have stepped forward at both the campus and statewide level. Not only have they stepped forward they are truly a remarkable group and I look forward to continuing to work with and serve both the officers and members of UC-AFT.

I support the reelection of the current Executive Board and I look forward to the opportunity to serve you.

In solidarity,

Axel E. Borg

Vice President for Organizing

Mike Rotkin, Incumbent

I am a candidate for re-election to the position of Vice President for Organizing for the UC-AFT.  I recently retired after 42 years of teaching at UCSC and am planning to retire from the union as well at the end of the next year. I see part of my job this year as seeking qualified individuals to run for this position next year.

I have been VP for Organizing for a little over a decade. I previously served as VP for Legislation and VP for Grievances. I recently stepped down as President of my local after twenty years. I have also been a local grievance steward, representative to our Central Labor Council, Chief Negotiator for the Unit 17 Librarians for the past five years, Chief Negotiator for Unit 18 Lecturers on and off for about 20 years until about five years ago, and currently serving on the Lecturer Negotiating Team. I also have been the Mayor of Santa Cruz five times.

During the past year, I initiated an effort to focus the UC-AFT more on strategic organizing initiatives. For many years, we had focused our efforts on winning what are now considered among the best labor contracts in the nation for contingent faculty and librarians. However, increasingly, the battle has shifted to Sacramento and the Regents because one cannot win concessions at the bargaining table if the University is being starved for State funds or spending the funds they do get on deeply misguided priorities. Working with our field staff and the E-Board, all of whom I support for re-election, I hope to solidify that work this year

I hope to have your support for this final year as Vice President for Organizing.

Mike Rotkin

Secretary-Treasurer

Miki Goral, incumbent

I am running for re-election as UC-AFT Secretary Treasurer. I have had the honor of serving UC-AFT in various capacities since 1983, when I first joined the Unit 17 (Librarians) bargaining team as the record-keeper, later becoming the Chief Negotiator.  I have led the Unit 17 negotiating teams from 1984 to 2007, when I passed the reins to UC-AFT Vice-President Mike Rotkin. I am still on the bargaining team.

In 1984, I was elected Secretary of UC-AFT, an office I held until 1986, when I became Treasurer. In 1999, a re-structuring of the Council combined the duties of Secretary and Treasurer into one position, which I have held since then. During my tenure as a Council officer, I have worked with a number of officeholders and Executive Directors and can provide a context of continuity for the work of the organization.

The Secretary-Treasurer’s duties are set out in the By-Laws: namely to record and disseminate minutes of Council meetings and to be responsible for all monies received and paid out by UC-AFT.  I have developed and streamlined procedures to fulfill the duties of the job efficiently and accurately. I have striven to monitor the union’s finances and ensure that our funds are used wisely for the benefit of our members.

While most of the union’s work is focused on representing our members and enforcing the contracts we have negotiated, we must not forget that UC-AFT is part of the larger union movement in the United States.  I serve as a vice-president of the California Federation of Teachers, representing the interests of UC-AFT and university academic employees, along with UC-AFT President Bob Samuels, in that body.

As the university moves to implement new methods of delivering education to students, the union must play a role to insure that the quality that makes the University of California so well-regarded is not compromised. Our president, Bob Samuels, has been instrumental in bringing to the fore issues surrounding the University’s real support of undergraduate education. It is the task of the Council to engage our members in this process and support our leaders as we work with the governor and legislature to hold the University to account. I look forward to being a part of this goal as an officer of UC-AFT.