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Unit 18 Bargaining Update #3, April 16 and 17, 2015

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Hi Everyone,

First, I apologize for the late update. Last bargaining session turned into our weekend of planning actions on the statewide level for organizing in support of bargaining, which was held in Oakland directly after our bargaining session. Then, I had to catch up on my teaching.

In any case, on Thursday, the 16th, we continued outlining our vision for Lecturer appointments by discussing Articles 7b—Process for Initial Continuing Appointments and 7c—Continuing Appointments. First, we proposed language to standardize and regularize the process for undergoing the excellence review and achieving a continuing appointment. We proposed shortening the at-will contract / probationary period from six years (18 quarters or 12 semesters) to three years (9 quarters or 6 semesters). We also proposed joint appointments so people teaching in two departments won’t have to wait even longer for a regular job. We proposed that lecturers should receive credit towards the count for continuing status for prior teaching in the UC, even at other campuses.

We also proposed changes in technical aspects of setting someone’s appointment percentage, and more importantly, we proposed that people with continuing appointments should have automatic rights of first refusal for new classes that open up, so that the UC cannot hire others to teach classes that current employees could teach instead of just letting current employees get to full time. This should help people who are teaching at a percentage below benefits eligibility reach the magic level at which they have health insurance and a defined benefit pension.

At this point, when we stated that an arbitrator could compel a department to give a continuing lecturer with an excellent record of teaching and publications in a field a class in that field, the UC freaked out and quit for the day. It was 2:00 PM. Sigh.

On Friday, the 17th, the UC acted as if our discussions of 7a, 7b, and 7c had never  happened, and we proceeded to discuss other articles of our contract. The UC re-proposed taking part-time Lecturers with Potential Security of Employment (tenure-light Lecturers) out of our bargaining unit, and rejected including retired Lecturers in our unit. We discussed updating non-discrimination language in Article 3—Academic Responsibility and Article 4—Non Discrimination in Employment. The first article explains that we cannot discriminate; the second explains that we are protected from the same discrimination. We also proposed arbitration to settle cases in which the UC puts someone into the wrong title code.

Finally, we discussed Article 8—Instructional Support. We proposed radical things such as access to up-to-date computing technology and having our names attached to the courses we teach in the campus schedule of classes and posted on department websites. The UC said they will get back to us on that.