Earlier this quarter, I was delighted to announce that UC's Office of the President (UCOP) and the Coalition of University Employees (CUE) had reached an agreement on UC's proposal to increase the wages of our clerical employees who are compensated the least.
Shortly after that, UCOP announced its systemwide plan for non-represented staff and academic employees who earn less than $40,000 .
Yesterday, I was very pleased to learn that UC and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union have also reached agreement. The pact affects approximately 14,300 UC service and patient care employees earning less than $40,000 per year, and represents a total cost to the university of approximately $8.9 million.
The agreement, effective April 1, 2007, pays particular attention to the needs of nearly 3,000 UC custodians on three UC campuses. UCSC, as the following details indicate, is one of those campuses:
. Custodians at UCSC, UCB, UCSB shall receive a $1.25 per hour increase, followed by a $0.50 per hour increase on October 1, 2007, for a total wage increase of $1.75 per hour.
. Custodians at other UC campuses (except UCSF Medical Center) shall receive a $0.50 per hour base-building wage increase.
In addition to special raises for custodians, other AFSCME-represented employees shall receive the following:
. Employees earning less than $30,000: 2% salary increase
. Employees earning $30,000 - $34,999: 1% salary increase
. Employees earning $35,000 - $39,999: 0.5% salary increase
This agreement has other benefits to our campus people. Last September, I set aside funds to raise the wages of ALL of the staff employees at UCSC who are compensated the least. In other words, in addition to the agreements reached systemwide, we as a campus have begun to boost the compensation of these staff employees.
Now that the AFSCME agreement has been reached, people represented by that union will be eligible for the same UCSC-based increases that we have begun to provide to others in those salary ranges.
The UCSC campus increases, which are retroactive to October 1, 2006, will:
. Raise the minimum full-time annual salary rate on the campus to $25,000.
. Provide equity increases from 1 to 4 percent, depending on salary level, to individuals earning $25,000 and $35,000 a year.
Again, I am very pleased that this latest agreement has been reached, and that we can implement the campus increases as well for these very deserving staff members.
