More info from UC-AFT re: paycut/furlough proposal, by Karen Sawislak

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
proposed paycuts/furloughs.  According to his letter of June 17, 2009, this
measure will realize $195 million in savings that will be used to plug the
gap in state funding for 2009-2010. 

However, the entire UC payroll exceeds $9 billion.  An 8% cut would thus
appear to yield far more in savings, even after accounting for the fact that
employees who earn less than $46 thousand are slated for a 4% cut.

We asked UC for clarification and were told that the $195 million cited by
President Yudof represented only the savings realized in state General Funds
(i.e., from that portion of payroll currently funded out of state monies).
 We also were told that some of the money from salary reductions will likely
be used for things like purchases of new research equipment.  

This answer only raises further questions, as most UC employees are NOT paid
from state funds. We have asked Vice President for Budget Lenz for an
accounting of the savings that UCOP expects to be realized from ALL funds.
 We also want to know how ALL of these funds will be used.

We believe this additional yield from the paycut/furlough proposals easily
could be as much as another $350-400 million dollars.  One would expect
that these savings would go toward filling the immediate 2009-2010 gap in
state funding.  But based on President Yudof's statement that this measure
will yield only $195 million and UCOP's further clarifications, this does
not appear to be UC's plan.

Former AFT member and UCB Emeritus Professor Charles Schwartz has just
released his own analysis of this matter.   This material is a bit dense,
but we believe it is well worth your time.  

It can be found at: 

http://universityprobe.org/2009/06/salary-cuts-at-uc/#more-389

We share Professor Schwartz's concerns and questions.  We urge all of
you  to familiarize yourselves with these issues and to raise awareness
about them among all of your UC colleagues.

2.  Radio Interview on UC Budget and Governance Issues

UC-AFT President Bob Samuels was interviewed by UC-AFT member and UCI
librarian Dan Tsang for Tsang's radio show on KUCI.  They had a wide-ranging
discussion of the budget and governance issues at UC.  A podcast of the
interview is available at:

http://www.kuci.org/podcastfiles/600/Sv090622.mp3

Thanks for your close attention to these matters. We will continue to update
you as this situations unfolds.

-- 
Karen Sawislak 
Executive Director
University Council--AFT 
274 14th Street Oakland, CA 94612
510-740-0145
fax: 510-808-0378
ksawislak@cft.org