Biweekly news digest from the California State University Employees Union
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DISPATCHERS’ OVERTIME PAY GRIEVANCE SETTLED
CSUEU PRESSES CHANCELLOR FOR ANSWERS
KILDAY-HICKS’ COMMENTS TO THE CSU BOT YESTERDAY
CSUEU AND CSU LABOR COALITION ENDORSE MARCH 4 ACTION
UNTIMELY VOLUNTARY TIME REDUCTION PROGRAMS
UNIONS MOBILIZE FOR HAITI RELIEF EFFORT
BALLOT INITIATIVES THREATEN RETIREMENT SECURITY
AB 656 HALTED BY APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
NEW SURVEY REVEALS SUPPORT FOR EDUCATION
FREE JOB MERGING WEBINAR SET FOR FEBRUARY 4
UPCOMING EVENTS
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Dispatchers’ Overtime Pay Grievance Settled
More than 110 CSUEU-represented employees across 18 campuses will receive back pay for overtime as the result of a grievance settled just two days ago. The payment comes to a grand total of approximately $140,000.
Originally filed at CSU San Marcos, the grievance dealt with campus security dispatchers working 3/12 schedules. During the two-year period covered in the grievance—June 1, 2007, through June 9, 2009—they worked 36 hours (three 12-hour days) in one week and 44 hours (three 12-hour days plus one 8-hour day) in the next week, averaging out to 40 hours per week over each two-week period. They were compensated at straight time but should have received overtime for the four hours beyond 40 hours in the second week. As a result, the grievants are eligible for retroactive overtime pay during this two-year period.
The situation has been addressed via side letter #29, effective June 9, 2009, which is the reason the grievance ends on that date.
By the end of March, each claimant should receive a summary of hours from their campus payroll departments, and they will need confirm the accuracy of this information by May 1. Read the settlement and CSU’s list of claimants. Current or former dispatchers who are not on the list and think they may qualify to join this settlement should contact Sr. Labor Relations Representative Lois Kugelmass as soon as possible at lkugelmass@calcsea.org.
CSUEU Presses Chancellor for Answers
On January 21, CSUEU President Pat Gantt sent the letter below to CSU Chancellor Charles Reed, asking for clarification as early as possible on CSU budget plans in the face of the governor’s proposed $305 million restoration of funds to the CSU. To date, there has been no formal response, though many comments were made at the CSU Board of Trustees meeting in Long Beach on Tuesday and yesterday indicating that it will be an uphill battle for the legislature to approve the proposed restoration of funds. CSUEU will continue to press the Office of the Chancellor for guidance.
Dear Chancellor Reed:
Governor Schwarzenegger’s budget presentation on January 8th gave most of us in the
public higher education system a pleasant surprise. The proposed restoration of $305
million is a significant step to move the CSU system back to the funding level that it
rightfully deserves.
In FY 2009-2010, $275 million was calculated to have been saved as a result of
furloughs and reductions in the workforce. Will the $305 million restoration be enough
to remove the need for furloughs and prevent the threat of systemwide layoffs in the
2010-2011 budget year?
I strongly urge you to recommend to the Trustees that the CSU allocate these restored
funds to remove the need for the furlough program when the current agreement expires
this summer. That will allow us jointly to bring the workforce back to full operations to
serve the students and provide a quality education.
In addition, I would like to know the CSU’s formal response to the Governor’s request in
his budget executive order S-01-10, dated January 8, 2010. It is important that we know
the CSU’s position publicly so that rumors can end and so that we can deal with the
true impacts of the Governor’s budget on the CSU.
The budget process is a long and tedious one. If we all focus on the issues and work
together, I strongly believe that we will have a favorable result in the final budget, and
the CSU will finally be able to climb from its deep hole.
Sincerely,
Pat Gantt
President, CSUEU
Russell Kilday-Hicks’ Comments to the CSU Board of Trustees Yesterday
Every time I come to these meetings, I’m bothered by the same thing: we in the audience have to strain to hear you. I spoke to some technicians about turning up the volume and they said that’s not the problem. Instead it’s just that most of you don’t hold the microphones close enough and speak directly into them.
Unfortunately, this is an apt metaphor. Unless I’m not paying attention, and I think I am, we cannot hear you.
As you know, California’s Master Plan for Higher Education is not working like it used to. According to testimony given by the three leaders of the system to the joint legislative committee currently reviewing the plan, the problem is not structural but due to state under-funding. If we continue as we have been, we are heading toward system breakdown.
What is needed is a renewal of the public commitment to our mission and our collective future by properly funding public higher education, and all of public education for that matter.
To his credit, we heard loud and clear from Trustee Bleich on his way out the door about the value of this system--both for himself and California. UC President Yudof told legislators that he should be out there in the streets with the students. Well, why isn’t he? And why aren’t you? I know we have a tenuous alliance, but are we doing enough? We need to be like that annoying Verizon guy: “Can you hear us now, California?” repeated again and again.
The governor threw $305 million at the wall. It is up to us to make it stick, but our challenge goes way beyond this immediate goal. Please turn up your volume.
CSUEU and CSU Labor Coalition Endorse March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education
On Monday, the CSUEU Board of Directors voted unanimously in favor of a resolution to support the March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education, a grassroots effort to develop actions at campuses across the nation on March 4 in support of public education funding. With this resolution, CSUEU encourages its 24 chapters and 16,000 represented employees to work with local peer organizations to create actions on March 4 at each of their sites. Read the resolution.
On Tuesday, the CSU Labor Council, which consists of all unions representing CSU employees, also endorsed the March 4 activities with the following resolution:
“The CSU Labor Council endorses the March 4 action and all future actions, as endorsed by the Labor Council, and encourages all unions to participate.”
Present at Tuesday’s meeting were representatives of CSUEU, CFA, APC, UAW and UAPD.
For further details about the March 4 initiative, visit defendcapubliceducation.wordpress.com and www.defendeducation.org.
Untimely Voluntary Time Reduction Programs
By Russell Kilday-Hicks, VP for Representation
This recent note to chapter leaders deals with veiled threats of layoffs disguised as invitations to take voluntary time reductions. As explained below, the bargaining team has advised management to conduct straw polls of employees instead in order to gauge interest in such reductions.
Despite our best advice, two campuses (Cal State LA and CSU Bakersfield), with possibly others to follow, have insisted on distributing a call for employee-initiated, voluntary time-reduction. We were approached and informed through the Furlough LMC that some of the campuses wanted to do this and were presented with a draft letter. We informed the chancellor’s office representatives that we do not want any part of this effort. Instead of their proposed letter, we advised them to do a non-binding, straw poll of employees to notify them of the existence of the program and for planning purposes only to see if there would be any interest if budget cuts forced us to layoffs. Further, we advised campuses to work with the local union leaders through the Labor/Management Committees to avoid any rumors spreading among the staff.
Voluntary time reduction is allowed for individuals under Article 16 in the contract. In addition, Article 24, the layoff article, allows for a special case of time-reduction as mitigation to layoff. This is designed to capture funds in the specific bargaining unit affected by layoff.
We believe that the campuses are acting prematurely to invoke this clause under the implied threat of layoff when we are not under actual layoff. If an employee were to reduce his or her time base, at this time there would be no guarantee that any of our bargaining unit positions would benefit. Of course, if any employee felt the need to reduce his or her time base for personal reasons, he or she is free to do that through the provisions under Article 16. However, we are recommending to our represented employees who do have the life circumstances that would allow consideration of a voluntary time reduction not to consider taking any action at this time. It may be better to wait and see how the CSU ends up when the legislature is done with the state budget for the coming fiscal year and take it then if layoffs are imposed on our bargaining units so our co-workers could directly benefit.
Unions Mobilize for Haiti Relief Effort
In the wake of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, union members across the country are taking 
action to provide much-needed help and resources to the hundreds of thousands of displaced and injured Haitians.
Several unions, including AFSCME, United Steelworkers and UAW have already made generous donations, and many other unions are working around the clock to raise additional funds to send to Haiti. Some California unions are going above and beyond to help the victims of the earthquake, including the Los Angeles firefighters from IAFF local 1014, who have been with the search-and-rescue effort in Haiti from the start, and the California Nurses Association/ National Nurses United, who have already sent more than 12,000 nurses to Haiti and continue to raise funds to send more nurses and supplies.
SEIU is also soliciting assistance for displaced and injured Haitians.
Learn more about labor’s relief effort and find out how you can help.
Ballot Initiatives Threaten Retirement Security
Three ballot initiatives are being circulated in a misleading effort to reduce the retirement security of all state employees hired in the future. In addition, Gov. Schwarzenegger is supporting a separate plan to scale back benefits for future state employees to 1999 levels.
“Pension funding is a smaller percentage of the state payroll now than it was in 1982,” points out CSUEU President Pat Gantt. “Those who attack our retirement security refuse to acknowledge that hundreds of thousands of public employees traded higher potential earnings in the private sector for a modest amount of retirement security.”
All of these attacks on retirement security rely on misinformation and myths about employee compensation. Initiative supporters trot out statistics on a small number of local government executives who arranged cushy retirement deals for themselves and their cronies while ignoring the fact that the overwhelming majority of government employee pensions are in fact quite modest.
The three proposed state initiatives are all designed to use the ballot box to undermine the
collective bargaining process in separate jurisdictions throughout California. These measures are more than just an attack on our retirement security: they aggressively seek to undermine organized labor and working families who want a secure retirement.
Be wary of those who try to convince you to lend your signature to any proposed ballot initiatives concerning pension or health benefits reform. Despite such noble-sounding names as the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, these are in fact the same folks who are hell-bent on gutting CalPERS and other state worker retirement plans via the ballot box.
Our advice: Just say no! And spread the word about the consequences of providing signatures for these initiatives.
AB 656 Halted by Appropriations Committee
On January 21, the Assembly Appropriations Committee took action on Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico’s Assembly Bill 656 that essentially defeats the bill for this legislative cycle.
The committee deleted the oil and gas severance tax portion of the bill—that is, the portion specifically earmarked for public higher education—and replaced it with a simple reporting requirement.
The amendments require the state Board of Equalization to annually report to the legislature the amount of revenue that would be generated for public higher education if the oil and gas tax was implemented. The inability to garner a two-thirds vote that would have been required for Assembly passage--only possible with the support of Assembly Republicans--coupled with the bill’s potential costs to the state general fund, directly led to this outcome.
When AB 656 was first introduced, such supporting unions as CSUEU and CFA understood efforts to enact this bill would be a multi-year process. We will continue to support passage of the full bill in legislative sessions to come.
New Survey Reveals Support for Education
The Public Policy Institute of California has just published a results of a wide-ranging survey about Californians’ attitudes about their government. Among the key findings:
• Two-thirds of Californians would pay higher taxes to avoid cuts in K-12 education
• 50 percent would pay higher taxes to support current funding for higher education
• 48 percent oppose higher taxes to support current funding for higher education
• 65 percent oppose further cuts to higher education
• 70 percent favor cuts in corrections
Read the PPIC’s press release about the survey.
Read the full report.
Free Job Merging Webinar Set for February 4
With the current budget problems, campuses are combining job duties in unusual combinations. On February 4, 12-1 p.m., CSUEU for the first time offers a free webinar designed to help union stewards and members learn more about the issue of job merging. Topics include:
• what is job merging?
• what are my rights and what can I do about it?
• examples of job merging taking place across the CSU system
Classification Committee Chair Nancy Kobata leads the workshop. President and chief steward of CSU Fresno Chapter 309, she’s previously offered popular classification and IRP workshops to various chapters intended to empower members and to provide them with a more global view of classification issues.
Further details and optional pre-registration.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
Saturday, January 30
CSEA Board of Directors meeting
Sacramento
Monday, February 15
Presidents Day
Headquarters Closed
Thursday, March 4
National Day of Action in Defense of Education
Actions at campuses across the state and nation
Friday-Sun, March 26-28
CSUEU Board of Directors Meeting
Holiday Inn Capitol Plaza, Sacramento
Wednesday, March 31
Cesar Chavez Day
Headquarters Closed
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See back issues of CSUEU E-News, distributed every other Thursday.
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