UC lecturers to strike Wednesday over unsavory bargaining practices

SANTA CRUZ – UC Santa Cruz lecturers plan to strike Wednesday morning as part of a movement across the University of California system.

The planned strike follows months of negotiations between the university at large and its lecturers. University lecturers are seeking better pay, more job security and compensation for additional work done outside of class hours.

Negotiations drove lecturers across the UC system to picket on campus for two days in the middle of October. Now, UC-AFT, the union that represents UC employees, has authorized lecturers to strike this week.

However, Wednesday and Thursday’s strike is not directly related to ongoing bargaining between the labor union and the university. Instead, university lecturers are calling attention to the university’s unsavory bargaining practices.

“This strike is about a pattern of bad faith bargaining and unfair labor practices committed by President Michael Drake’s administration,” said Vice President of Organizing Josh Brahinsky in an email.

During negotiations, the university undermined the collective bargaining process,  went around the union and proposed an agreement directly to workers in a “take it or leave it” fashion, according to Jeb Purucker, a UC-AFT field representative in Santa Cruz.

Purucker also said the timing of the go-around offer was suspicious. The university sent the proposal just as the union was beginning to organize more publicly.

“To me, it just sounds like a pretty transparent effort to split the bargaining unit,” he said. “It’s a pretty serious attack on the principles of how collective bargaining is supposed to work.”

The UC Office of the President denied the allegations of unfair labor practices. It stated the claims were not supported by facts or by the California Public Employment Relations Board.

This week’s strike could have large scale impacts to the operations of the university this week.

The UC system employs more than 6,000 lecturers across all 10 campuses. Nearly 1,200 of them work at UC Santa Cruz and teach around half of all undergrad classes. This week’s strike, which was authorized by 91% of the union members on Saturday, could see all of those classes canceled for two days.

Class cancellations could reach even farther. UC lecturers have garnered support from faculty and graduate students, who also have the ability to honor the lecturers’ strike.

Purucker said faculty and graduate students support the effort and won’t cross the picket line. “I would expect that most classes at the university will be impacted by this on those days,” he said.

The UC rebuked the unions decision to execute a labor strike.

“The University of California is disappointed with UC-AFT’s decision to pursue a two-day strike,” UC Spokesperson Ryan King said in an email. “Withholding instruction is grossly unfair to our students and a strike does not move us closer to a contract.”

Impacts to the university may extend beyond class cancellations. Lecturers plan to form picket lines at both entrances to the campus.

The Monterey Bay Central Labor Council has also sanctioned the strike. That union represents many transportation services within the city such as Santa Cruz METRO which transports students and faculty to and from campus.

In the meantime, bargaining between the university and the lecturers continues. Currently, negotiations are in impasse, but if they break down as the two parties move past impasse, then another strike looms over the UC system, which UC-AFT approved over the summer in a 96% vote.

Picketing begins at 8 a.m. both days. Both Wednesday and Thursday will feature a rally on campus at noon. The strike is only anticipated for those two days.

“We want the university to stop breaking the law and bargain with us in good faith,” Purucker said. “That’s what this week is all about.”