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Teamsters Strike UC Jan 10: Your Rights and Responsibilities

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Dear UC-AFT members,

Our sister UC union, Teamsters Local 2010, is holding two strikes this week. One strike is limited to UCLA, and the other is UC-wide. This e-mail provides information about both strikes, and your rights and responsibilities with respect to our contracts and the picket lines.

The Skilled Trades bargaining unit of Teamsters Local 2010 at UCLA is striking January 6-10 over UCLA management’s unfair labor practices. UC was denied an injunction on this strike, leaving no question of its legality. These 600 workers, including UCLA’s electricians, elevator mechanics, plumbers, and other facilities workers, are paid as much as $10 an hour below prevailing wages and have not received a raise in more than four years. UCLA admin has unlawfully refused to bargain for past raises, despite having funds in the budget for them.

On Tuesday, January 10, the 13,000 member Clerical bargaining unit will join the skilled trades workers and hold a one-day strike on every UC campus. The Teamsters have rejected UC’s salary offer of 12-18% over five years because many of their members would still earn poverty wages and face food insecurity. The Clerical contract expired December 9 and there has been no recent progress in negotiations.

Lecturers and librarians work closely with members of the clerical bargaining unit in a variety of positions in our departments and libraries.  We can’t withhold our labor in support of these strikes, but we can support our colleagues in a variety of other ways.

We must:

Abide by the terms of our MOU’s, particularly Article 35 (No Strikes/No Lockouts) and 

Respect the rights of Academic Student Employees (i.e., grad students) represented by UAW Local 2865, especially if any individual grad student exercises her right to observe the picket line as a matter of individual conscience and free expression, which is permitted by Article 19 of the UAW 2865 contract. 

We may:

Respect the picket line as long as we do not withhold our labor or interfere with the operations of the university. If you are not scheduled to teach or perform other duties on Tuesday Jan. 10, you can join the picket line, or respect the picket line by not coming to campus.

Hold class in an alternate location, as long as accessibility is assured for all students.

Teach the issues, much as you would any other important current event that you might address in your class: instruct students in what a labor union is, what kind of work Teamsters Local 2010 members perform to sustain the university, how a strike happens and what it means.

Express solidarity with our sisters and brothers of IBT Local 2010. Share your support for their struggle for livable wages in person and on social media. Their campaign uses these hashtags:  #ucpaytolive and #ucpaytoeat.

We may not:

  • Cancel class.
  • Encourage others to cancel class.
  • Engage in a strike, sympathy strike, stoppage or interruption of work, or other concerted activity that interferes directly or indirectly with university operations.

Let us know immediately if you exercise your rights in accordance with our MOU and experience any intimidation or retaliation.  Retaliation for communicating about or participating in union activities is illegal.

Mia McIver
President, Local 1990 UCLA
Vice President for Organizing, UC-AFT