Contract negotiations at an impasse
MID-CITY Emotionally charged from the rally cry, “Taking back UC for patients, students and our families,” service workers and medical technicians picketed in front of the Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital on Thursday against their employer over a fallout in contract negotiations.
The local 3299 branch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) — which represents the service and patient care technical (PST) workers employed by the University of California — is seeking a new contract, its demands including wage increases and better health care benefits.
University officials have been negotiating with two separate bargaining units — the service workers, which includes custodial and food services; and PSTs, which work in the University of California (UC) hospitals — for the past several months. The contract for the nursing unit expired on Sept. 27, while the terms for the service workers ended on Thursday.
The union staged protests at all 10 UC campuses and five medical centers on Thursday, including in front of the Santa Monica medical center’s location on 15th Street, which attracted close to 100 people. Local 3299 represents about 20,000 workers statewide, 12,000 of which are employed by the UC hospitals.
“We support our employees right to gather and express their opinion on these matters but at the same time, we feel the work that needs to be done between UC and AFSCME needs to be done at the bargaining table and in mediation, sitting down and trying to reach a compromise,” said Nicole Savickas, spokeswoman for the University of California Office of the President.
Dressed in scrubs, nursing and medical technicians crowded near the hospital’s entrance, carrying picketing signs and walking in circles, shouting often-heard protest chants.
“What do we want? Justice!” they yelled. “When do we want it? Now!”
The union and the UC are currently at an impasse over negotiations for both bargaining units. Contract talks for the PCT is currently in mediation and it looks as though the service workers are now headed in that direction after union leaders on Wednesday rejected a proposal to extend the now-expired contract by five months with an approximately $2.8 million wage increase. That increase is in addition to the 4.5 percent already afforded to service workers under a previous contract, according to university officials.
The union is now requesting a state mediator for the service worker contract, Savickas said.
AFSCME workers are asking the UC to increase their wages overall by at least 26 percent, reaching the market rate salary that is paid to the area hospitals, such as Kaiser Permanente, according to Lakesha Harrison, the president of Local 3299. While most hospital workers receive a minimum wage of about $15 an hour, UC workers are paid an average of $9 an hour, Harrison said. The university offered a 3 to 5 percent increase, depending on location and title, to PCT workers.
The union is also demanding that a step salary system that automatically awards wage increases be implemented while university officials offered to the PCT a contract where a step structure would be effective in the second year of the contract with the option of reopening the issue for bargaining. Within the same offer, a step increase would be based on satisfactory or better performance.
“It’s not remotely close to what we’re asking,” said Monica Martinez, one of the bargaining representatives for the L.A. area.
AFSCME leaders say they would also like to see the employee’s health care cost and coverage guaranteed for the life of the contract. The university made an offer to the PCT that would give workers the “same high quality health care and retirement benefits as other UC employees at the same affordable cost,” according to the proposed contract terms.
“I understand health care is a national problem,” Harrison said. “I also understand the UC has the money to pay.”
The hospital employees who participated in the Santa Monica protest carried signs that spoke to the important role that workers believe they serve in the operation of the UC system, signs that read: “We Run UCLA,” and “UC Can’t You See Our Patients Are Our Priority.”
Many of the workers have been a part of the medical center for years.
Minerva Aquino, a single mother of two children, said she has to work two full-time jobs — the other being at Saint John’s Health Center a stone’s throw away from Santa Monica-UCLA.
Aquino has worked at UCLA for more than 10 years and said she often works seven days a week, some days filled with 20 hours of work. “I have to work so hard to pay for their college,” Aquino said during her lunch break on Thursday. “If I don’t work two jobs, I won’t be able to pay my rent.”
While the demonstrations went on Thursday, officials with the University of California expressed hope that a compromise could soon be reached, stressing that they have been involved in good faith negotiations.
“Our focus is on getting two solid contracts that recognize our employees’ dedication and many contributions,” Howard Pripas, the UC’s executive director of labor relations, said in a statement. “But that requires a willingness to compromise and work things through at the bargaining table from both sides.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 1, 2008. Read the original PDF.