<p>Anyone has any info. on this?</p>
<p>haven't heard a thing</p>
<p>There was an article someone linked too, but now I can't find it.</p>
<p>Here we are.
<a href="http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=26065%5B/url%5D">http://www.dailycal.org/sharticle.php?id=26065</a></p>
<p>Academic Student Employees Union Negotiating UC Contract
Reduced Class Sizes, Full Fee Compensation Among Demands of Union of GSIs, Others
BY Stephanie M. Lee and Amy Brooks
Contributing Writers
Thursday, September 20, 2007</p>
<p>The union representing UC academic student employees, including GSIs, is in negotiations with the university to renew and alter the terms of its contract before the current agreement expires at month’s end.</p>
<p>Since March, United Auto Workers Local 2865 organizers have been in talks with the university to make a series of changes to its contract, requesting wage increases, full student fee compensation and a more transparent process to determine discussion section class sizes, among other demands.</p>
<p>Union president Scott Bailey Clifthorne said the union’s requests must be met to ensure the university remains competitive with its peers.</p>
<p>“Providing quality education is a huge priority for our members,” he said. “It’s an easily observable fact that most face-to-face instruction at UC happens between GSIs and undergraduates and other academic employees, like tutors.”</p>
<p>The union has more than 6,000 members systemwide, including around 2,600 UC Berkeley employees, according to Clifthorne.</p>
<p>Under the current contract, all academic student employees are fully compensated for their health insurance plan and up to the value of in-state education and registration fees, Clifthorne said.</p>
<p>The union is requesting that the university also pay out-of-state employees for the additional amount of educational fees above the in-state compensation provided, as well as campus fees for all academic student employees.</p>
<p>UC spokesperson Nicole Savickas said the university “currently provides wages for our teaching assistants that are comparable with top public research universities across the country.”</p>
<p>The union is also demanding a more fair process for negotiating workloads. Panels of professors currently determine the class sizes of discussion sections taught by GSIs, Clifthorne said, but the union wants to add a neutral third party to this negotiation process.</p>
<p>Josh Weiner, an English department GSI and union member, said he wants to see class sizes reduced.</p>
<p>“It’s hard to imagine that we would be able to keep doing what the sections are supposed to be doing with more than the 33 people we have now,” Weiner said.</p>
<p>Savickas said outside faculty already review aspects of how courses are taught, including the number of students in discussion sections.</p>
<p>Throughout the negotiation of the contract, which is set to expire Sept. 30, Clifthorne said the university has withheld what he called basic information about academic student employees.</p>
<p>Despite requests, Clifthorne said the university has not disclosed the number of academic student employees who have dependents or pay out-of-state tuition. It has also not provided full details about employees’ health care coverage, he said.</p>
<p>Clifthorne said that any strike would be in response to what he called the university’s unfair bargaining practices.</p>
<p>The university was unavailable for comment about the information available during the negotiation.
Contact Stephanie M. Lee and Amy Brooks at <a href="mailto:newsdesk@dailycal.org">newsdesk@dailycal.org</a>.</p>