So a while back (last summer) the University of California issued a plan to deal with California's increasing budget crisis. Everyone (except those funded completely by grants or essential services) would be receiving a pay cut and furlough days to help save money. Our center had been approved through the University as an essential service and as far as we knew, would not be receiving pay cuts. Which is good right? Yeah sure until this week. Yesterday we got a letter from HR stating that the Clerical Union that happens to negotiate our contracts as preschool teachers had negotiated with UC to have pay cuts and temporary layoff days for everyone except those that worked in the hospitals. Ummm....that's not cool. The University said we didn't have to have a pay cut because there's really no way for all of us to take a day off. If someone is gone, they have to be replaced. The state of California says so. So in the end it won't save anybody any money, the employees lose money and the University ends up paying as much if not more to fill the gaps left by people on temporary layoffs.
So since I abhor unions and all that they are currently "doing" for people, I wrote them a nice little email today about how much I appreciated what they've done for me. See I regularly receive email updates on negotiations and such from the union, just so I know what is going on. The problem is they haven't sent any emails since December and suddenly we're hit with this letter yesterday. See, I told them that I wanted the same exemption that the University had already granted us. Funny thing is, 45 minutes after I sent my email, UCSD CUE represented employees all received an email from the Union about how departments had issued these notices before both sides had agreed to them and that they would be meeting next week to negotiate details. Really? How did that happen? And magically, you figure this out when someone calls you out on it. Well we'll see next week if I get any news as far as 'negotiations' go. And meanwhile, whether my pay is cut or not, I am truly grateful that I do have a job and even though it doesn't pay exceptionally well (Chris makes more than me as a grad student) it is a job and it does help pay the bills. And by the way, I could do without being represented by a union. Just sayin.
1 comment:
Yeah, so aside from the part where I'm not a great teacher, this is exactly why I didn't go into education. Teaching talent or not, I refuse to deal with unions. Take luck! :)
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