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By Robert Salonga

Daily Bruin Staff

The University of California’s assertion that there is no money in the budget to increase staff salaries is false, union leaders said in a workshop Wednesday.

Members of the Coalition of University Employees who met in the Jules Stein Eye Institute maintain there are funds in the 2002-03 UC budget for its requested 15 percent staff salary increase.

“The reality of the UC budget picture is not nearly as bleak as people have been led to believe,” said CUE President Claudia Horning.

Horning referred to the recent economic downturn in the state, which has prompted the UC to prepare for up to a 15 percent, or $475 million, cut from its state budget.

Since the state accounts for less than 30 percent of the UC budget, the university should not use state troubles to explain small salary increases of up to 2 percent, she said.

According to CUE, increases for the 18,000 UC clerical workers it represents would cost the university $61.2 million of its approximate $13 billion budget. Workers earn wages that are 21 percent below market standards, Horning said.

But university officials see the salary increases as neither feasible nor practical, given the state’s current economic conditions.

“The fact is that in all likelihood, the UC is facing substantial reductions to state funding next year,” said Steve Olsen, vice chancellor for budget and finance.

“I don’t believe it would be prudent to be granting extra salary increases at this state without current funding to pay for them,” he continued.

CUE is making its move in the midst of marginal pay increases throughout the university.

The UC Board of Regents approved a 2 percent general salary increase for the 2002-03 fiscal year during its Nov. 15 meeting. Two days earlier, Gov. Gray Davis had announced $2 billion in mid-year state budget cuts, and called on the UC to reduce its current budget by $86 million.

“The reason we’re offering these salary increases is because of reduced funding from our partnership with the state,” said UC Spokesman Paul Schwartz.

The partnership is an agreement between the governor and the UC to increase state funding proportionally to university growth. The UC anticipates Tidal Wave II, the influx of 60,000 students to the UC over the next decade.

“The money received from the state drives systemwide salary policies,” Schwartz said.

In November, the union’s contract with the UC expired. As a result, CUE members do not have to abide by no-strike policy, dictated in the CUE-UC contract. The expired contract also means the union cannot take part in employee grievances with the university.

Both parties are in negotiations. Included in the union’s proposals are reduced tuition for dependents of clerical workers and consistent pay between workers at different UC campuses performing the same job.

The contribution of clerical employees is “important to the ongoing success of the UC,” Schwartz said, but some union members were not satisfied by the university’s response.

“Their bargaining team doesn’t know what’s going on or is just bluffing,” said Kathy Kasten, treasurer for the union’s Los Angeles chapter.

CUE, which meets with the UC monthly, was formed in 1995 and achieved UC recognition in 1997. At UCLA, the union represents 4,000 employees.