UPTE Local 7 – San Francisco

HX Bargaining Report #8
UCOP  (February 14-17, 2012)

The UPTE-HX bargaining team met with the UC bargaining team from Tuesday, 2/14/2012, through Friday, 2/17/2012, at the UCOP offices in Oakland. This was the eighth such session since  bargaining began in early October 2011. This was also the first bargaining session in more than a month, as the last bargaining session was at UC San Diego from January 11-13, 2012.

Much of the focus for these days of bargaining was on seeking equity raises for the Dietitian IIs and Senior Dietitians, who were formerly unrepresented but came under HX representation in September 2011. UC’s response was extremely varied, with some UC medical centers offering immediate equity raises ranging from 2% to 20% for each newly represented dietitian, and others
offering no equity increases until the entire HX contract is completed.

Some medical centers were unable to make a clear, coherent proposal or even identify who these newly represented dietitians are. Further at all but one Medical Center placement on the newly created steps for the Dietitians was not based on their total, or even UC, years of experience. UC stated that the terms of the proposal were determined by the HR department at each medical center, and that some of those locations were not interested in improving their proposal. UC’s proposal for the Dietitian II’s and Senior Dietitian was not acceptable to the UPTE-HX bargaining team by the end of the bargaining session.

On the last day of bargaining, UC presented their second Article 5 Compensation proposal, which was only slightly improved from their initial proposal from December 2011. HX has been waiting for  over a month, including cancelling an earlier bargaining session, so that UC would have time to come up with a wage proposal based on a contract that expires before July 1, 2013. What they passed across the table was again a 5-year contract with only an additional 0.5% added to the across the board wage increases. This proposal again came with the stipulation that UPTE-HX must accept PTO for all members and the two-tier 2013 pension proposal as part of a 5-year contract. UC stated this was their “bottom line offer.” UPTE-HX Chief Negotiator Wendi Felson politely informed the UC team that UPTE-HX is not interested nor willing to negotiate the 2-tier pension changes or the reduced retiree health plan proposal at this time. HX further pointed out that other unions have recently received much higher wage increases in their new contracts than and we would expect the same for HX; that the medical centers are doing very well financially; and that the medical center CEO’s pay has been increasing by as much as 60% per year. Again it was firmly stated that this HX bargaining table wants a contract that expires by June 30, 2013.

HX also declined to extend the current contact any longer (it had previously been extended through 2/17/2012), which puts UPTE-HX into a “dynamic status quo” situation. Status quo means that  most of the terms and conditions of your workplace can’t be changed by management, including such things as work hours, procedures, work schedules, lunch break times, uniforms, etc. There will be more coming out about this soon.

This also means that the option of mobilizing and initiating strike preparations is now available to UPTE-HX as the No Strikes article is no longer in place. It is essential that members take action at  this critical crossroads in the bargaining process. We will be holding a System wide HX mobilizing and planning meeting at UC San Diego on Sunday, March 11th to make plans and discuss  strategies to move bargaining forward to a successful contract. Please plan to come; we need everyone’s input and efforts at this time. This meeting is open to all; we will cover your expenses and help with transportation. Let your bargainer know so we can help make arrangements for you to come.

Our next bargaining session is March 5th – 7th at UCLA. Local HX members are encouraged to attend.

Your bargaining team:
Wendi Felson, wfelson@gmail.com, Clinical Laboratory Scientist (retired), Chief Negotiator
Jamie McDole, j5mcdole@gmail.com>, Case Manager, Davis
Sonia Palacio, sonia.upte@yahoo.com>, Clinical Social Worker, Irvine
Tom Brewer, Tbrewer@torrnet.com>, Clinical Laboratory Scientist, Los Angeles
TK Lee, tklee1851@gmail.com>, Pharmacist, San Diego
Jason Rosenbury, jasonrosenbury@gmail.com>, Clinical Social Worker, San Francisco
Susan Rode, Student Health Centers

HX Bargaining Report #1
UC San Diego (October 5-7, 2011)

Your UPTE HX Bargaining team just returned from three days of bargaining for our new contract between UPTE and UC. We met at UC San Diego for our first round of discussions. UPTE proposed improved language to correct some issues with the current HX contract. We also submitted our market equity and wage proposals.

UC seemed interested in correcting many of the problems we have with some of the articles in our contract. And, we sincerely hope they continue to work with us to resolve these issues. Many of the issues we discussed revolve around the increased workloads and stress that our members are facing and getting UC to recognize years of experience.

During bargaining, many UCSD HX’ers gave compelling presentations about working at UCSD and the challenges they face everyday. We had presentations from several Clinical Social Workers, Physician Assistants, Case Managers and wage comparison documents submitted by Nuclear Medical Techs and Clinicial Laboratory Scientists. These presentations will help UPTE in negotiating for changes in our new contract to include better working conditions, experience based steps, market equity, and more.

UPTE and UC would like to finish negotiations before our contract expires on December 31, 2011. UPTE has submitted all of its proposals and now awaits UC’s responses.

Our next round of talks will be at UC San Francisco October 19, 20 and 21. If you would like more information or would like to make a presentation, submit market equity data, etc. –
Please contact one of the bargaining team members. If you can get away from work, we encourage you to come to support the bargaining team, observe the process or make a presentation.

Your bargaining team:
Wendi Felson, Chief Negotiator
Jamie McDole, Davis
Sonia Palacio, Irvine
Tom Brewer, Los Angeles
TK Lee, San Diego
Chris Radke-Schmidt, San Francisco
Holly Landsbaum, Student Health Centers