UC lecturer strike averted
LOS ANGELES — A massive two-day strike by University of California lecturers that threatened widespread class cancellations was averted early Wednesday after the union and university reached a tentative agreement on a contract that would strengthen job security and boost the pay by an average 30% over five years. It is expected that classes will go on as scheduled, although there could be some early-morning confusion as word spreads about the agreement.
“We’re encouraging and advising members to teach today,” said Mia McIver, president of the University Council-AFT, which represents 6,500 lecturers. “We’re doing the best we can to get the word out.”
The long-simmering labor dispute had reached a tipping point recently as UCAFT filed unfair labor practice charges over the university’s alleged refusal to negotiate a paid family leave policy and participate in confidential mediation. The lecturers, who are nontenured, teach one-third of UC undergraduate classes but had gone 20 months without a contract.
But the two sides came to a tentative agreement about 4 a.m. Wednesday after marathon negotiations. All members of the bargaining unit will be eligible for four weeks of paid family leave at full pay; those with good job evaluations will be able to keep their positions under new rehiring rights and workload requirements will be more transparent and consistent, Mia McIver, UCAFT president, said early Wednesday.
“It’s the best contract in UC-AFT history and among the best nationwide for contingent faculty,” McIver said.
The union had come to the brink of a strike at all nine undergraduate campuses, where hundreds of faculty members had expressed solidarity with lecturers and canceled classes.
UC officials were not immediately available to comment early Wednesday. They had argued that the union’s unfair labor claims were unfounded.
“While we continue to bargain in good faith — withholding instruction is grossly unfair to our students and a strike does not move us closer to a contract,” UC said in a statement Tuesday.
UC currently ranks among the top three public universities in the American Association of Universities for lecturer compensation and at a higher rate than the California State University and California Community Colleges, according to a UC fact sheet. The average UC salary, based on a nine-month rate, was $70,089 for lecturers with less than six years of service and $92,549 for those with more than six years. But most lecturers work part time, and more than half do not return for a second year. Some of them leave for better jobs, faculty said, while others are not reappointed for various reasons.