UC-AFT

July 1, 2009

Shelley Nielsen
Interim Senior Director
Labor Relations
UC Office of the President
300 Lakeside Drive
Oakland, CA 94612

Dear Shelley:

I am responding on behalf of the UC-AFT Executive Board to the invitation our union received from your office to comment on the pay reduction/furlough plans proposed on June 17, 2009 by President Yudof.

First, UC-AFT expects that the University will fully honor all applicable labor law in its dealings with our units and our existing contracts.

To UC-AFT-represented employees:
 
I am writing to share more information about President Yudof's proposed
plans for paycuts and/or furloughs.
 
We at UC-AFT believe it is critical that all employees receive as much
information as possible about these proposed measures.  UC is moving very
fast and it is important to educate everyone about the details of their
plans.

1.  Where is ALL the money going?

UC-AFT is very concerned about the accounting that President Yudof has
offered to date for the amount of savings that will be yielded by the

The author has generously allowed us to post his latest article, on the administration's plan for salary cuts here (below). It's also available on both of his websites, the latest installment in a rich body of work on what the UC administration has been up to lately:

http://universityprobe.org/
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~schwrtz

UC President Yudof’s Nonsensical Plan for Salary Cuts, by Charles Schwartz, UC Berkeley

To UC-AFT-represented employees:

You likely have seen President Yudof's message of June 17 announcing that he will ask the Regents to declare a Fiscal Emergency in July, and outlining three proposed methods for pay reductions and furloughs to achieve an 8% savings starting in August 2009.

Please be aware that the Union that represents you has also received this message.  I write today to clarify your status as UC-AFT-represented employees.

Lecturers -- Unit 18

The following is a series of questions and answers to help clarify the status of the UC budget.

Possible Salary Reductions

Q: Is it true that we are going to have our salaries reduced?
A: It is very possible that the UC may decide to cut all salaries 5% or use a furlough system to accomplish the same thing. However, in the case of lecturers and librarians, the university has to negotiate any salary reduction.

Q.: If the UC is broke, why would the union resist a 5% salary reduction?

Dear UC-AFT-represented Librarians and Non-Senate Faculty:

As you very likely know, the University is the process of soliciting comments in regard to draft furlough/salary reduction guidelines. These draft guidelines propose to give the President the authority to declare a financial emergency and, in such circumstances, to seek the implementation of furlough and/or salary reduction plans.

As you can imagine this is not an easy time to be in office. The state we love is in crisis: revenues keep dropping, our deficit is now at $24 billion, unemployment is double digits, good democrats like our Controller John Chiang predict bankruptcy if we don't close the budget gap by June 30 and the Governor says cuts alone is the only the answer.

I'm writing to update you on my thoughts, let you know what I am doing, and how you might help.

Reality Check

Here is the list of the officers elected to serve on the board of UC-AFT Local 1474 during the 2009-10
academic year. (Their statements are still posted below.)

Local President: Kathryn Klar, Lecturer, Celtic Studies, UCB
Local Vice-President: Karen MacLeod, Academic Specialist, Physiology, UCSF

Board Members-at-Large:

Virginia Abascal, Lecturer, Berkeley Law, UCB
Diane Pearson, Lecturer, Ethnic Studies, UCB
Shary Rosenbaum, Lecturer, Graduate School of Education, UCB