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To the relief of the university, lecturers and clerical workers changed their minds and elected to come to work every day this month.

The lecturers’ union threatened a systemwide January strike numerous times last quarter, but both unions formally notified the UC last month they have no plans to strike in January.

The University Council-American Federation of Teachers said it needs more time to coordinate efforts with the other two unions currently negotiating with the university, the Coalition of University Employees and the University Professional and Technical Employees.

In addition to CUE and UPTE, the lecturers’ union believes three other unions may consider joining in a systemwide strike, which would take a lot of coordination, said UC-AFT President Kevin Roddy.

Since the Public Employment Relations Board didn’t grant the UC’s request for impasse with CUE, the UC informed CUE last month it would be willing to enter informal mediation, facilitated by the chair of the state mediation and conciliation service, said UC Press Aide Robert Schwartz.

If CUE agrees to informal mediation, it must also agree not to strike unless an impasse is reached, he added.

Claudia Horning, CUE president, said the union would agree to informal mediation in a “step to get both sides closer together.”

Whether CUE goes to impasse with the UC affects when the systemwide strike will occur, said Robert Hennig, a member of the UC-AFT bargaining team. He estimated the earliest date of the strike to be sometime in March at the end of the quarter.

All three unions are negotiating new labor contracts with the UC. March marks the third year for UC-AFT. Both university and union officials say negotiations have extended such a long time because the other side is bargaining in bad faith with no intention of compromising on contentious issues, namely wages and job security.

Over the past year all three unions have planned and participated in various strikes, rallies, protests and teach-ins to recruit members, draw attention to themselves, and to put pressure on the UC.

Some have been small and resulted in little university notice. UPTE staged the most recent demonstration at UCLA, a 50-person noon-time rally with picket signs, speeches and drums just outside Ackerman Union, while inside the union’s bargaining team met with the UC.

But other actions were disruptive, resulting in a formal comeback. The UC responded to union strikes at six campuses earlier this year by filing two formal complaints with the PERB arguing the parties were both still negotiating.

“It is clear to the university that intermittent strikes or threats of strikes are serious evidence of bad faith bargaining,” Schwartz said.

CUE officials maintain its strikes were justified because they were based on unfair labor practice charges against the UC for the same allegations.

Though unions say they strike to put pressure on the UC at the bargaining table, both sides agree that while the various events succeed in drawing media attention and awareness to the unions’ concerns, they fail to rouse the university during negotiations.

“Rallies, strikes or other such demonstrations do not influence the university’s positions. The UC formulates its offers based on what it believes to be the best and fairest offer given available resources,” Schwartz said.

Union leaders said they understand money issues are off the table given the state’s financial crisis. What they want is better employee treatment, Roddy said.

The planned January strikes were going to be another protest event, Hennig said. But since past strikes haven’t affected the UC’s offer at the table, UC-AFT changed its focus this quarter to organizing a coalition of multiple unions for a more substantial strike it hopes the university will notice, he added.

“We are done playing games. We are not planning public relations things anymore,” said Robert Hennig, a UC-AFT bargaining team member. “The only thing where we can do anything is by trying to hurt them.”

UC-AFT wants every single campus out on strike, and is seriously considering open-ended strikes if necessary, Hennig said. The UC-AFT council is meeting in two weeks to work out the details.

Hennig said the lecturers’ unions would prefer not to strike, but they feel like it is their last option. CUE, UC-AFT and UPTE union leaders say little progress was made at the last bargaining sessions in December. They said it was difficult to bargain with the UC because they send representatives to the table who have no power to make decisions.

But the UC assures all of its negotiators are experienced professionals with full authority to represent the UC at the table, Schwartz said.