Stop Wage Theft against UC Teaching Faculty!

UC President Michael Drake and Executive Vice Provost Susan Carlson

UC-AFT VICTORY! (ALTHOUGH THE BATTLE IS NOT QUITE OVER YET.) SCROLL DOWN TO THE 10/13/20 UPDATE TO READ ABOUT HOW THE ARBITRATOR DECIDED IN OUR FAVOR.

Our current UC-AFT contract provides for salary increases equivalent to those for tenure-track faculty in fiscal year 2019-2020. UC-AFT faculty members negotiated this guarantee specifically to increase parity between tenure-track research faculty and non-tenure-track teaching faculty at the University of California. Teaching at the UC should be fully funded so that students have the education they--and all Californians--deserve.

However, the UC Office of the President has informed us that, while tenure-track faculty will receive 4% raises this year, UCOP is only providing 3% to UC-AFT faculty. Although the UC claims that one of its highest priorities is reducing the student-faculty ratio, treating teaching faculty as second-class citizens fails the UC students who depend on our expertise as scholar-teachers. #FacultyEquity = #StudentSuccess

In issuing the revised salary scales, President Napolitano wrote, “Competitive salaries, transparently equitably set [sic], are instrumental in recruiting and retaining the excellent and diverse faculty vital to developing and maintaining the innovation and excellence of our academic programs.” Given that UC students take approximately 1/3 of their credits with UC-AFT lecturers, the innovation and excellence of UC’s academic programs depend directly on recruiting excellent and diverse teaching faculty.

President Napolitano further affirms that “A strong salary program is a signal to ALL faculty that UC values their work.” If ALL means ALL, why aren’t teaching faculty included in the full 4%? Don't UC administrators value the work of teaching faculty?

To restore education to the center of the UC's mission, UCOP must honor the letter and spirit of our contract. A 1% difference doesn't mean much to the one-percenters in the upper echelons of the UC administration, but it's a lot to part-time, short-term faculty, many of whom need second jobs to make ends meet in high cost-of-living areas where UC campuses are located.

The UC is the largest employer in the most prosperous state in the nation.  The UC's 2019-2020 budget projects $557,000,000 more revenue this year than last year and specifically calls for investment in "the faculty members...that are critical to student success and help students make timely progress toward graduation." There's no excuse for short-changing UC teaching faculty. We the undersigned call on UCOP to stop the growing wage gap, invest in education at the UC, promote #FacultyEquity, and adjust our salaries as our contract requires!

8/15/2019 UPDATE: The UC Office of the President announced that tenure-track faculty were receiving 4% raises this year. But when we examined the published salary scales, we found that it's actually closer to 5.3%. Despite having contractually agreed to support our work with the same raises that tenure-track faculty receive this year, UC admin is still trying to get away with giving us only 3%. We thought they were saying that 4% = 3%, but now they're saying that 5.3% = 3%. Either way, math is simpler for us. Our mutually negotiated contract is meant to be honored. Please sign if you agree.

8/30/2019 UPDATE: UC-AFT filed a grievance formally challenging UC admin's failure to honor our contract on July 26th, 2019. After accepting the grievance and participating in the first resolution meeting, the UC Office of the President has now informed us that it considers our grievance invalid. It is refusing to hold further resolution talks or put the matter before a neutral third-party arbitrator. Our petition is now even more important in holding admin accountable for paying UC's teaching faculty fair and just salaries!

11/5/2019 UPDATE: Teaching excellence on UC campuses depends directly on UC-AFT teaching faculty. We put our whole hearts into educating, mentoring, and advising UC students.  We're fighting so that UC's dedicated teachers are recognized and compensated in accordance with the contract UC admin has already agreed to. The 2.3% raise that UC admin is paying to tenure-track research faculty but denying to non-tenure-track teaching faculty may sound small in percentage terms, but when the median UC lecturer salary is just $19,900 per year, any salary increase is real money that will make an important difference for our members and their families. The language is right there in the contract; we're simply calling on UC admin to implement it as they've already agreed to do.

In October, we notified the UC Office of the President that we wanted to exercise our right to neutral third-party arbitration.  UC admin didn't respond within the 30 day window required by our mutually negotiated collective bargaining agreement. We're proceeding with selecting arbitrators anyway. Why does UC admin think they can get away with ignoring us and our contract? Why does UC admin think they can get away with wage theft? This petition is essential to holding them accountable and making sure that teaching at the UC remains a viable middle-class profession. Please sign and share.

6/16/2020 UPDATE: UCOP is contesting the validity of our wage theft grievance and alleging that it is not eligible for arbitration. The matter is set for an arbitrability hearing on June 29th, when we will present our arguments for why it should proceed to the actual arbitration by a neutral-third party. This means that UCOP is wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees instead of just honoring our contract as written. Tell UCOP that this is unacceptable: sign this petition to stop wage theft at the UC.

6/29/2020 UPDATE: Today was the arbitrability hearing. A neutral third-party arbitrator will determine whether our grievance may proceed to full arbitration on the merits of the case. UC admin's position is that we are not entitled to neutral third-party arbitration of the grievance.

10/13/20 UPDATE: The arbitrator's judgment is in, and it's in our favor: our case is arbitrable! Even better, because of the unusual nature of this case, the arbitrator ruled on the merits of the case as part of the arbitrability decision, meaning we don't have to proceed to another arbitration hearing. WE WON!!! UC-AFT TEACHING FACULTY ARE ENTITLED TO THE FULL RAISE THAT TENURE-TRACK FACULTY RECEIVED!!!  

11/9/20 UPDATE: The UC Office of the President has informed us that they do not want to issue the back pay that a neutral, third-party arbitrator determined they had unjustifiably withheld from UC's teaching faculty. So our battle against this wage theft is not yet over.

6/9/21 UPDATE: UCOP has agreed to implement 1% raises for lecturer going forward. They have not yet agreed to implement back pay. Sign this petition to say we're not walking away without back pay, interest, and missed retirement contributions.




Sponsored by
Default_group_icon
UC-AFT

To: UC President Michael Drake and Executive Vice Provost Susan Carlson
From: [Your Name]

Our current UC-AFT contract provides for salary increases on par with those for Senate faculty this year. UC-AFT faculty members negotiated this guarantee specifically to increase parity between tenure-track research faculty and non-tenure-track teaching faculty at the University of California. Teaching at the UC should be fully funded so that students have the education they--and all Californians--deserve.

However, the salary scale guidance issued by UCOP provides 5.3% raises to Senate faculty and only 3% to UC-AFT faculty. Treating teaching faculty as second-class citizens fails the UC students who depend on our expertise as scholar-teachers. It works against the UC's stated goal of "invest[ing] in the faculty members...that are critical to student success and help students make timely progress toward graduation.​​" To restore education to the center of the UC's mission, UCOP must honor the letter and spirit of our contract.

The UC is the largest employer in the wealthiest state in the nation. The UC's 2019-2020 budget projects $557,000,000 more revenue this year than last year​. In a time of prosperity, when one of the UC's highest priorities is reducing the student-faculty ratio, there's no excuse for short-changing UC teaching faculty. We ask you to abide by our contract and furnish the additional 2.3% range adjustment.