Librarians

UC-AFT Librarians have ratified the Unit 17 tentative agreement.   97% of voting members voted in support of the new agreement on Salary.

Detail of the agreement:

• All merits awarded last year will be made retroactive to July 1, 2011.
• All librarians who had a successful merit review in their last cycle will receive a 3% increase retractive to October 1, 2011.

Thanks to all librarians who wrote letters, attended meetings and participated in the postcard campaign.  Special thanks to the members of the bargaining committee and the negotiating team for their work preparing for negotiations and disseminating information on the campuses.  

The Unit 17 bargaining team reached a tentative agreement with University negotiators this week.   The tentative agreement needs to be ratified by union members.  Each campus will open polling stations over a three day period between October 5-7.  The bargaining team strongly endorses the ratification of the tentative agreement.  Librarians should be on the lookout for announcements about local meetings to discuss the T.A. prior to the vote next week.

Below is a summary of the details of the T.A.  You can read the actual tentative agreement langauge here.

UC’s Unit 17 librarians returned to the negotiating table in early June for reopener bargaining over salary. The last reopeners, in 2008, which finally ended two years later in a state-mediated stalemate, had seen some progress made toward addressing the inconsistencies in the rank-and-step pay scale, though negotiations ultimately stalled over the amount of increase to the beginning step.

This story was originally published in the Aggie on September 22, 2011.

The University of California has decided not to pay merit increases owed to its union librarians because librarians are currently in salary negotiations. Although all UC librarians benefit from periodic cost of living adjustments negotiated by the librarians' union, the paychecks of union librarians are the only paychecks affected by this unusual punitive and divisive move. By not paying previously earned merit increases, the university is attempting to penalize union librarians for exercising their right to collective bargaining.

This letter to the editor was originally published in the Davis Enterprise on September 3, 2011.

Thank you for highlighting the article about University of California salaries. Decisions being made about salaries are very confusing.
On the one hand, high-level employees seem to easily obtain raises but librarians have been told that if we pursue bargaining for increased salaries, the merit increases due one-third of librarians will be withheld. These merit increases reflect the hard work that librarians do to support faculty and students.

UC librarian pay lags behind California State University and Community College District compensation by about 20 percent. We have taken on considerably greater workloads as our colleagues retire, or move to higher-paying jobs.

August 23, 2011

Tom Leonard
University Librarian
The Library--Librarian's Office
255 Doe Library
UC Berkeley campus                                                                     

Dear Tom,

18 August 2011

Dear Denise,

As you might be aware, over the years salaries for University of California librarians have fallen behind salaries for librarians in the California State University system and California community colleges—currently the gap is around twenty percent (20%). Over the years UC librarians have been asking for gradual raises to bring their salaries into line with their peers in state university and community college libraries. In every round of negotiations we are told that the university doesn’t have the money and it is a bad time to ask.

Virginia Steel

University Librarian

University Library

University of California, Santa Cruz

Dear Ginny,

We write you, in your capacity as both our University Librarian and the incoming convener of the Council of University Librarians, to express our shared concern at the University's decision to withhold the merit increases due librarians in the most recent review period, pending the conclusion of salary reopener negotiations between the Office of the President and the University Council—American Federation of Teachers.

Dear Dr. Jackson,

Since July 1st, a number of merit increases that were supposed to have gone into effect for UCR’s librarians have not been implemented.  The review process is meant to recognize and reward good work; withholding salaries and job titles effectively equates to punishing workers for being excellent employees, and plainly put, is unconscionable.  Leveraging employee’s salaries in this aleatory manner strikes us as a dirty tactic by the University during this period of conctract negotiations, and cannot be seen as anything other than blackmail.  Considering that management positions continue to undergo annual review procedures and incur raises as normal, it is understandable why we librarians are outraged.

August 31, 2011
Brian E. C. Schottlaender
The Audrey Geisel University Librarian
UC San Diego Libraries

Dear Brian,
The UCSD librarians represented by UC-AFT Unit 17 request your support during the upcoming negotiations between our union and the UC Office of the President (UCOP). These discussions will primarily concern salary, including the very important issue of UCOP’s withholding of the merit increases that should have started on July 1st for about one-third of our members.
Withholding the merit increases while negotiations are ongoing is particularly outrageous as it punishes our most productive librarians. We ask that you argue for the reinstatement of the merit funding, including the retroactive payment of these increases.
The issues under negotiation that we feel merit your attention and support are as follows:
• UCSD librarians have not received a salary range adjustment since 2008 or a cost of living increase since 2007.