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UC Policies Threaten Quality Research, CWA Warns
CWA warned that the University of California is undermining the quality of its research programs - and jeopardizing advances in medicine, the sciences and technology - by its employment and funding practices.
With nine campuses, five medical centers and three national laboratories, UC plays a major role in the nation's scientific and technical research. But its reputation is threatened by university practices that result in staggering turn-over rates among front-line researchers.
Members of the University Profession-al and Technical Employees/CWA Local 9119 took this message to Sacramento on their "lobby day," Feb. 23, armed with an analysis detailing the serious problems in the UC system. UPTE members pressed for hearings on UC's funding practices, its labor relations record and an extension of union and bargaining rights for university workers at the Los Alamos facility in New Mexico. State legislators have agreed to hold hearings on these issues this spring.
The UPTE report found that turnover among researchers at UC campuses has reached crisis proportions, with a completely new research team required to work on key medical and scientific projects every three years, on average, due to UC's flawed spending policies, said UPTE President Jelgar Kalmijn.
UC's "reputation is being undermined by a university system that, in effect, has slashed pay, forced staff to work as casual and `at-will' employees, and denied them the benefits and rewards of career employment," Kalmijn said.
The study, "Preserving Quality Research at the University of California," also revealed that UC is jeopardizing quality research by diverting millions of dollars that have been earmarked for salaries and support of the university's 3,800 research professionals. The union has called for full disclosure by UC to ensure that taxpayer dollars - awarded to the university through research grants - are properly spent.
That warning was echoed at a news conference in Los Angeles, where Scott Wildman, chairman of the assembly's joint legislative audit committee, joined UPTE members and staff research assistants in pressing the university to address concerns about turnover, staff pay and the threat to UC's research program.
Outside the Jules Stein Eye Institute on the UCLA campus, UPTE Executive Vice President Cliff Fried, 15 staff research associates and Wildman made the case for an overhaul of UC research spending policies.
Wildman called the UPTE analysis "very solid" and said the university's action "doesn't make sense if we're going to maintain our status" as a top research facility. To maintain leadership, "we have to make sure we take care of employees."
Fried said that at UCLA, 68 percent of staff research associates are casual employees, with 45 percent kept in that status for many years.
At UC Davis, where there is a smaller pay differential between university and private sector researchers and a more limited use of temporary workers, annual turnover among research staff is about 16 percent, the lowest in the UC system. At UCLA, however, where both the pay gap and use of temporary workers are the greatest, turnover is an astounding 49 percent, the UPTE study found. At the news conference, Fried cited a 34-percent pay gap between UCLA researchers and scientists in the surrounding community.
Over the past six years, UC management has diverted $16.2 million that had been budgeted for salary increases for professional researchers, the study found, stressing that these funds, from federal grants, state appropriations and various foundation grants, were awarded to the university specifically for staff pay increases.
"By following these practices, there is no question that UC will continue to lose experienced and dedicated research professionals to private companies and other facilities," said Kalmijn.
Some 3,800 UC professionals are mobilizing to win improvements at the university and, along with the 2,000 health care professionals who joined UPTE last year, are bargaining for a first contract.
With nine campuses, five medical centers and three national laboratories, UC plays a major role in the nation's scientific and technical research. But its reputation is threatened by university practices that result in staggering turn-over rates among front-line researchers.
Members of the University Profession-al and Technical Employees/CWA Local 9119 took this message to Sacramento on their "lobby day," Feb. 23, armed with an analysis detailing the serious problems in the UC system. UPTE members pressed for hearings on UC's funding practices, its labor relations record and an extension of union and bargaining rights for university workers at the Los Alamos facility in New Mexico. State legislators have agreed to hold hearings on these issues this spring.
The UPTE report found that turnover among researchers at UC campuses has reached crisis proportions, with a completely new research team required to work on key medical and scientific projects every three years, on average, due to UC's flawed spending policies, said UPTE President Jelgar Kalmijn.
UC's "reputation is being undermined by a university system that, in effect, has slashed pay, forced staff to work as casual and `at-will' employees, and denied them the benefits and rewards of career employment," Kalmijn said.
The study, "Preserving Quality Research at the University of California," also revealed that UC is jeopardizing quality research by diverting millions of dollars that have been earmarked for salaries and support of the university's 3,800 research professionals. The union has called for full disclosure by UC to ensure that taxpayer dollars - awarded to the university through research grants - are properly spent.
That warning was echoed at a news conference in Los Angeles, where Scott Wildman, chairman of the assembly's joint legislative audit committee, joined UPTE members and staff research assistants in pressing the university to address concerns about turnover, staff pay and the threat to UC's research program.
Outside the Jules Stein Eye Institute on the UCLA campus, UPTE Executive Vice President Cliff Fried, 15 staff research associates and Wildman made the case for an overhaul of UC research spending policies.
Wildman called the UPTE analysis "very solid" and said the university's action "doesn't make sense if we're going to maintain our status" as a top research facility. To maintain leadership, "we have to make sure we take care of employees."
Fried said that at UCLA, 68 percent of staff research associates are casual employees, with 45 percent kept in that status for many years.
At UC Davis, where there is a smaller pay differential between university and private sector researchers and a more limited use of temporary workers, annual turnover among research staff is about 16 percent, the lowest in the UC system. At UCLA, however, where both the pay gap and use of temporary workers are the greatest, turnover is an astounding 49 percent, the UPTE study found. At the news conference, Fried cited a 34-percent pay gap between UCLA researchers and scientists in the surrounding community.
Over the past six years, UC management has diverted $16.2 million that had been budgeted for salary increases for professional researchers, the study found, stressing that these funds, from federal grants, state appropriations and various foundation grants, were awarded to the university specifically for staff pay increases.
"By following these practices, there is no question that UC will continue to lose experienced and dedicated research professionals to private companies and other facilities," said Kalmijn.
Some 3,800 UC professionals are mobilizing to win improvements at the university and, along with the 2,000 health care professionals who joined UPTE last year, are bargaining for a first contract.