UC OKs 3-Year Pact With Union

University of California officials announced Saturday that they had reached an agreement on wages and benefits with the union representing 11,000 teaching assistants, tutors and other academic student employees.

With the costs of tuition and health care rising steadily, the employees, represented by the United Auto Workers, have been engaged in sometimes contentious negotiations with the university system since May.

The parties reached a tentative agreement Tuesday but completed the process after the terms had been ratified by a majority of union members.

“We are hopeful that this contract signals a new era of productive and cooperative labor relations between the union and the university,” said Rajan Mehta, a UC Berkeley graduate student and union representative.

Thousands of teaching assistants held a one-day walkout last October, protesting UC demands that they stop engaging in sympathy strikes with other campus unions.

UC spokesman Paul Schwartz said the pact “both recognizes the important role our institution’s assistants play in helping faculty meet UC’s teaching needs and confirms the union’s obligation to labor peace.”

The three-year pact includes a one-time wage increase of at least 1.5%, and continues the UC’s practice of paying full health insurance premiums for graduate student teaching assistants who work at least 10 hours a week. Student employees will also receive 1.5% general wage increases in 2004 and 2005 if certain faculty members receive merit increases.