IRVINE : UCI Employees Rally Against Contract Offer

UC Irvine employees staged a lunchtime rally Tuesday, one of more than a dozen demonstrations planned to protest contract proposals they say are unfair.

Holding signs that called for raises, more than 60 UCI steam operators, engineers, electricians, painters and carpenters circled the administration building during their lunch break.

UCI employees and protest organizers said the two-year contract proposed by the university during negotiations did not include raises in 1996 for a majority of the craft union workers, making it the third time in four years workers would go without a raise. The negotiations are now at an impasse.

“Employees need to be recognized with an increase in salary,” said Tim Wootton, an electrician at UCI for six years. Wootton also is steward for Local 501 of the International Union of Operation Engineers, which represents facilities personnel at several college campuses in Southern California, including 95 skilled craft employees at the UCI campus and medical center.

However, campus representatives argue their proposal included raises in 1996, if a market study found that the workers’ pay was lagging.

“The proposal that we made to the union was for an across the board increase of 2.2% raise retroactive to October 1, 1994,” said Ann Finan, manager of consulting services and labor relations for UCI. “We would also make equity adjustments in 1996, based on the study.”

Finan said the last time union workers got a raise, it was a 4.5% increase in January, 1992.

Progress was made when talks between the local and UCI labor negotiators began in November, Finan said. Both sides settled on a tentative agreement, but the parties reached a stalemate in January when the union’s members voted to reject the proposal. A state mediator was appointed to intervene, and has met with both sides.