Dear colleague:
After nearly 24 months of negotiations with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), I wanted you to hear directly from the university about our offers to AFSCME leaders, which would affect your pay and benefits.
First, I want to thank you for your hard work and dedication in support of UC’s mission. We know you come to work every day committed to doing your best, and we deeply appreciate and value this commitment. We have been trying for many months to recognize your contributions and dedication with an agreement. We have offered a number of proposals that would guarantee fair pay increases and excellent benefits for you and your colleagues, consistent with those for other UC employees. We also sought assistance from state mediators to try to help us reach an agreement.
To make sure you have accurate information about what UC has offered, here is what our latest proposal to AFSCME leaders included:
- Compensation: A 12% pay increase for service and patient care technical employees over the next four years (3% each year), plus a one-time payment of $2,000 for all eligible employees upon contract ratification. UC already pays its service and patient care technical employees higher wages than other employers, and the pay increases we have offered would keep your pay very competitive.
- Health benefits: Quality health benefits at the same rates as other UC employees with similar salaries, plus a $25 cap for any monthly premium increases for UC’s Kaiser and HealthNet Blue & Gold plans.
- Retirement benefits: You will see no change in your pension benefits. Future service and patient care employees will have a choice between the same pension benefits that AFSCME agreed to in 2014, or a 401(k)-style plan, whichever plan they think is best for them. Most employers do not offer a pension, or a choice of retirement benefits.
- Contracting: There are already limits on UC’s ability to hire outside contractors. However, we know this is a concern for the union and employees and we have offered to give AFSCME more involvement in contracting decisions.
- Professional development: We have offered to expand programs throughout the university to help service employees build their skills and be eligible for higher-paying jobs.
We think our offers have been very fair, and that you deserve the chance to vote on them.
Again, we know how hard you work and we appreciate all you do for the university and the people we serve. We will continue to do everything we can to get you a fair contract as soon as possible, but an agreement requires compromise from both sides.
Sincerely,
Peter Chester
Executive Director
UC Systemwide Labor Relations