UC Workers' Pressure Campaign Escalates to Counter Administration's BadFaith Bargaining; April Fool's Day Message From Angry Staff:"UC, Stop Joking Around with Our Lives!".

(From AScribe)

BERKELEY, Calif., Apr. 1 (AScribe Newswire) -- Members of the Coalition of University Employees (CUE), the independent union that represents 16,000 clerical staff at the University of California's nine campuses and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, will be joined by other UC Berkeley staff for an April Fool's Day protest highlighting the mounting discontent of frustrated campus clerks, custodians, cooks and technicians. The rally is part of an action campaign involving four different campus unions whose contracts have ended or will end this spring. Striking at all ten UC campuses across the state is currently being discussed by service workers, clerical workers, and research-support and technical workers, all of whom decry the administration's lack of respectful treatment and unfair bargaining practices, most starkly evidenced by the lack of any wage offers for these workers from the university.

CUE representatives point to a neutral arbitrator's fact finding report, released in February. The report, written by well-known arbitrator Gerald McKay, supported the union's long-time claim that the university could and should improve the pay for clericals. McKay reported that the university had $20 million in non-state funds allocated specifically for clerical raises. Yet UC diverted the money for other uses. The University reported a net income of $786 million in 2003-2004 alone, a record in ...