Dear colleague:
I am writing to update on our negotiations with the UC-AFT and our efforts to negotiate a fair contract for you and your Unit 18 colleagues.
The university has been bargaining with the UC-AFT for more than a year, and we believe a contract for you and your colleagues is long overdue. Especially during these uncertain and chaotic times, you deserve the stability that a contract offers.
UC highly values the essential instructional role Unit 18 members play in educating our students. This high regard is reflected in the fact that the lecturers and other Unit 18 members enjoy some of the best pay, benefits, and working conditions in the country, and a level of job stability that accompanies an excellent performance rating that only a select few universities in the nation extend to lecturers.
Over the course of these negotiations, UC has offered the union numerous proposals that we believe recognize your many contributions to UC and our students. We think our more recent offers have been especially fair in light of the significant impacts employers everywhere are facing because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Here is a summary of what UC has offered for a two-year contract, which the union, to date, has not accepted:
- Improved job security:
- A new program that allows unit members to express interest early (within 60 days of appointment) to teach courses for the following academic year.
- A career path from a Continuing Lecturer to Senior Continuing Lecturer, which is an excellent improvement to recognizing the valuable contributions of Unit 18 instructors. Additionally, UC has offered greater job security for Senior Continuing Lecturers. Currently, in the event of a layoff, all Continuing Lecturers receive a one-year notice or pay in lieu of notice, as well as two years of reemployment rights. UC proposed that once a Continuing Lecturer achieves Senior Continuing Lecturer status, their reemployment rights will be increased to three years.
- Under certain circumstances, a lecturer can count Summer Session courses toward eligibility for a Continuing Appointment.
- Compensation: Pay increases identical to those received by non-represented non-Senate academic appointees for July 2020 and July 2021.
- Enhanced paid medical leave: Currently, paid medical leave is extended only to unit members with 100% appointments. UC has proposed extending it to unit members with appointments of 66% or greater. Additionally, paid medical leave usage currently is two quarters or one semester in the first 10 years of employment (three quarters or two semesters in the subsequent 10 years), with any partial usage counting as a full quarter or semester of usage. UC offered the union 22 weeks in the first 10 years (36 weeks in the subsequent 10 years), and allowing for usage across multiple quarters/semesters during the 10-year span.