UCSF, UC Berkeley, other UCs face possible strike (20,000 AFSCME members)

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2008/05/12/daily37.html

Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - 3:05 PM PDT

As many as 4,000 San Francisco Bay Area medical and campus service workers at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco are among 20,000 workers statewide scheduled to vote starting Saturday on authorization for a potential strike, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said Tuesday.

The vote, scheduled to take place between May 17 and May 22, will determine if AFSCME members threaten to strike five University of California medical centers and 10 UC campuses statewide. The union's Oakland-based Local 3299 said the vote follows 10 months of negotiations with the University of California's Office of the President.

Bill Schlitz, a union spokesman, said Tuesday that the local represents 3,000 Bay Area workers, including approximately 2,200 at UCSF Medical Center and some at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

A strike, at this point of undetermined length, could affect medical centers at UCSF, UC Davis, UCLA, UC Irvine and UC San Diego, as well as all 10 UC campuses: Berkeley, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Davis, Merced, Irvine, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego, Schlitz told the San Francisco Business Times. The last strike by service workers was in 2005, lasting a couple of days, he said.

In a web bargaining update, the University of California said the two sides met May 10 in a bargaining session at which AFSCME said there was no point in continuing to bargain.

UC officials said they've bargained in good faith, offering multiple offers with wage increases between 4 percent and 15 percent during the first year for medical center workers, and other contract improvements. "While we acknowledge that there are some disparities in salaries for (medical center workers), our proposals have been designed to address those disparities," said Nicole Savickas, human resources communications coordinator for the UC Office of the President.

FULL story at link.