By Lawrence Ferchaw Daily Bruin Senior Staff
The union for academic student employees and the University of California are currently in non-binding mediation as they attempt to arrive at a contract.
The decision to enter mediation came the day before a strike was scheduled to begin on Friday of finals week. Both sides have agreed not to discuss the substance of their negotiations while they continue to work toward an agreement.
But in a statement released March 16, UC President Richard Atkinson said he was happy the union chose to meet and negotiate.
"We continue to be committed to serious, good-faith negotiations with the goal of reaching a contract," Atkinson said in the statement.
The mediation will help both sides in reaching a contract and in resolving what the union has said are unfair bargaining practices by the university, said Connie Razza, a spokeswoman for the Student Association of Graduate Employees/UAW, which represents academic student employees at UCLA.
"We have the opportunity to try to resolve their unfair practices within the context of mediation," Razza said. She added that the union is also happy that UC officials said they would issue a letter to faculty and administrators reiterating the university's commitment to bargain with the union.
UC officials, however, said the charges of unfair and illegal bargaining on their part are unfounded. On March 15 they filed their own complaints against the union with the Public Employment Relations Board.
While Razza said the claims are untrue, the university's complaints against the union included refusal to bargain, failing to make a proposal and threatening a strike.
"The university felt it was important to be on the record with PERB objecting to some of the bargaining practices of the union that were clearly unfair," UC spokesman Brad Hayward said last month.
PERB will review both sets of charges.
The UAW and the UC reached the mediation agreement Thursday after discussions between the two parties and members of the state legislature, including Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) and Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco).
Gov. Gray Davis made Marty Morgenstern, director of the state Department of Personnel Administration, available to serve as the mediator.
Morgenstern has taught labor relations at both UC Davis and Berkeley. He also served as a member of PERB in the 1980s.
"He's got the know-how to get this done," Razza said of Morgenstern. "It's really a credit to Gov. Davis' commitment to education that he's allowing Marty Morgenstern to serve in this capacity."
Atkinson in his statement also thanked Davis for making Morgenstern available to mediate the negotiations.
While the two sides meet systemwide, negotiating sessions at the individual campuses have been suspended.
The UAW represents about 9,300 academic student employees at the UC's eight general campuses. The UC agreed to recognize the unions after elections last year at the campuses showed a majority of those who voted wanted to be represented by the UAW. Contract negotiations with the UC began in September.