On Thursday, September 24 a wave of protests washed over University of California campuses to draw attention to what protest organizers are calling a “priority crisis.” UC administrators’ and trustees’ arbitrary decisions to impose layoffs, furloughs, and skyrocketing student fees have sparked resistance throughout the institution. On left, University Professional and Technical Employees/CWA with students on picket line at UC Berkeley.  CFT members in K12 and community college locals wore blue AFT t-shirts in protest against state education budget cuts, and in solidarity with UC employees and students, across the state (right, food service workers at San Diego City College). (More media links in story below)

Due to the funding status of Non-Senate Faculty in the UC system our positions are particularly vulnerable to reductions being implemented in response to the state's budget shortfall.  Our members are already facing widespread non-reappointment, reductions in time, and layoffs.  At this point, UC-AFT does not know the extent of pre-six NSF non-renewals for 2009, but we suspect the size of our unit will shrink dramatically.  We are beginning to receive very significant numbers of layoff notices for NSF with continuing appointments that will be effective at the beginning of Academic Year 2010/2011.

The impacts of these reductions go beyond our individual income and security.  Each cut to curriculum, requirements, courses and programs represents a degradation of the instructional mission at UC.  UC President Yudof is framing all of these cuts as a necessary remaking of the University of California to reflect a time when state funding cannot be relied upon for instructional operations. Yudof created The Commission on the Future of UC to guide the university on planning and implementation as we begin this period of retraction.  The Commission was announced on July 16, the same day the regents granted Yudof's emergency powers and accepted his furlough plan. According to commission co-chair, and UC Regent, Russell Gould, "We need to act now to ensure that, through the state's budget crisis and long-term pattern of disinvestment, we don't sacrifice one shred of quality of this university system.  We can do this. We are the very same people who create knowledge and innovation, and we intend to apply the same ingenuity and determination to shaping the future of this university."  Unfortunately, massive cuts to instruction appear to be prerequisite to the work of the commission.

What follows is a campus by campus compilation of all the cuts we know about to date.  We've gathered some of this information through informal communications with our members, and some through our contractual notice process for reduction in time and layoff of continuing lecturers.  We are fighting these cuts where ever we can.  In some cases, we've already saved jobs, or reduced the impacts on our members.  Please communicate with your local UC-AFT officers and staff as cuts on your campus are announced.

UC Berkeley

• Physical Education Program has been reduced by 50%, all the lecturers agreed to take a 50% cut, which avoided the least senior people being laid off
  
• French Department issued layoffs for this coming year, rescinded them, and then promptly reissued them for 2010-11
  
• Comp Lit department laid off two people effective 2010-11
  
• School of Engineering issued layoff notices for 2010-11 to its entire continuing faculty
  
• East Asian Languages has lost most of its pre-six faculty
  
• Celtic Studies has issued a layoff or reduction notice to a CA for 2010-2011
  

UC-AFT does not believe that the University of California has a budget crisis.  We believe that the UC has a crisis of priorities, and that the current attempts by President Yudof to address the shortfall in state funding will only compound this crisis by defunding an already badly underfunded instructional program at UC.  We also reject the rationale and process by which President Yudof was granted the power to declare a financial emergency and to implement furloughs and pay cuts.

UC-AFT believes this is a manufactured crisis for the following reasons:

1.     800 million dollars over two years equals around 2% of UC's total operating budget for those two years.  Put another way, 98% of UC's total operating budget remains intact!

2.     42% of UC's total annual operating budget comes from auxiliary services like the medical centers, housing, parking, etc.  The regents have the power to decide how this money is used.  They currently claim the money is restricted, but it is restricted by choice, not by law.  Some auxiliary money could be used to cover the state deficit with limited impacts to the university. 


3.     The university has recently bragged about its AAA bond rating, and its record breaking year securing federal research funding.  UC has billions of dollars in unrestricted funds and investments that it could use to partially cover the state funding deficit.

 UC-AFT rejects the furlough plan for the following reasons:

1.    According to President Yudof, the majority of the savings from the furloughs will be used to pay for financial obligations that have nothing to do with the shortfall in state funding.  UC is openly planning on using this funding to pay its share of UCRP contributions, and other operating expenses not traditionally paid for by state funding.  

2.   This plan exempts all salary given above base pay.  Many of the highest paid UC employees are paid the majority of their salary above their base pay.  This fact undermines the claim that the furlough plan is progressive and fairly distributes cuts. 

UC-AFT will continue to work hard to expose UCOP's deceptive accounting practices and the misguided priorities of President Yudof and the Regents, who would rather completely undermine UC's instructional mission than share resources generated by other sectors of the university.  

UC-AFT is very concerned about defunding of education at the state level.  We we will continue to work tirelessly to educate ourselves and our members about the problems contributing to the underfunding of education in our state.  We believe that a combination of reform of Prop 13 and the 2/3 majority requirement, along with a more progressive tax code would ensure consistent funding for education in the future.  We expect the university to be a leader in the reform movement, and as such to set an example by committing a small portion of its own funds to maintain UC's promise of access and excellence to the citizens of California during the current state funding deficit.

Here are links to all recent budget related communications from UC-AFT:

Letter from UCOP to UC-AFT:  Unit 18 Lecturers Exempted from Furloughs

UC-AFT request for additional information re: furlough/salary reduction plan July 23, 2009 

E-mail from Bob Samuels to all unit members responding to furloughs July 21, 2009

E-mail from Karen Sawislak to all unit members re: UCOP request to bargain July 21, 2009

E-mail from Karen Sawislak to all unit members July 10, 2009

Letter to Shelly Nielsen at UCOP July 1, 2009

E-mail from Karen Sawislak to all unit members June 24, 2009

E-mail from Karen Sawislak to Librarians June 24, 2009

E-mail from Karen Sawislak June 18, 2009

E-mail from E-Board to all unit members June 1, 2009

Click these links to read the letters from UCOP Labor Relations requesting negotiations over the furlough plan for Lecturers and Librarians.

While President Yudof has argued for a salary reduction plan that is progressive and equitable, if we actually look at the numbers, we find the opposite is true. Using the recent salary database compiled by Jeffrey Bergamini (available at: http://ucpay.globl.org/), we find that the most well-compensated employees will face the lowest reductions because Yudof has decided to move off of his initial plan to base the salary reductions on total compensation, and instead, only base pay will be “taxed.” This change has tremendous effects; for instance, in 2008, 8 people made over 1 million dollars for the year, and their collective base pay was 1.7 million, while their gross pay was 13 million. If they were really taxed 10% of their total pay, the university would save 1.3 million, but because only their base pay will be reduced, the university only saves $170,000.  So if you are Jeff Tedford, you will lose only $22,000 instead of $230,000 of your 2.3 million gross pay.  

The unbelievable unequal distribution of wealth can be understood by the fact that 3,643 employees earn over $200,000 for a total gross pay of over 1 billion dollars.  Remember the total payroll for the system is 9 billion for 180,000 people, so 2% of the people make 11% of the total pay.  Moreover, the people making over $200,000 have a collective base pay of 640 million, so by taxing them 10%, we only get 64 million, but if we taxed the full pay, we would get 100 million, which is close to 70% of what the university will get by reducing everyone, except the people on external funds and all the other excluded groups.

On the topic of which employees are being excluded from the furloughs because they are funded by external grants, I have discovered that some groups of employees funded out of state funds will be excluded.  For instance, summer sessions at UCLA have told me that they are not being reduced because they are profit-making. And according to this strange corporate logic, people who make a profit should not be taxed. In fact, I was told that because my department, the UCLA Writing Programs, “only” teaches undergraduate students and has no external revenue, we will be cut the heaviest. 

We need to get a list of everyone who is excluded from the furlough program, and what types of profits and compensation they generate. The more I look at this whole plan, it looks like the poorest employees are subsidizing the wealthiest.

Bob Samuels, President UC-AFT