Home < Policies, Employee & Labor Relations < Labor Relations and Collective Bargaining < Systemwide Collective Bargaining Units < Professional Librarians Unit (LX) < Bargaining Update
On December 19, 2007, UC commenced negotiations with the American Federation of Teachers over a successor contract for the approximately 400 represented UC professional librarian employees. The two parties recently completed the initial demand process, and both sets of initial proposals can be found online. These proposals serve as the starting point for the negotiation process, and are therefore subject to change throughout bargaining; however, it is important that University professional librarian employees educate themselves about both parties' proposals and stay informed throughout the process.
Please review the chart below for more detailed information on the key issues in UC's initial proposal, along the University's rationale for proposing changes to current contract language.
| Issue | UC's Position |
| Salary System | UC has proposed a change to the salary article, which currently allows for professional librarian employees to be slotted into steps based on job title and seniority, to a range salary system, which assigns salary ranges (with a minimum, median and maximum) to groups of employees defined by job title. This proposal was made in order to allow greater flexibility in recruiting, rewarding and retaining professional librarian employees. The range system enables UC to provide professional librarian employees with a salary within the range that corresponds to factors other than simply seniority, such as performance and responsibilities. |
| Peer Review Process | The University has proposed changes to the peer review process in certain circumstances. For example, the proposal calls for an abbreviated peer review process in the case of simple merit reviews, and to allow for counterproposals in the case of professional librarian employees who are being actively recruited by other employers. The University believes that the current review process (which takes about 9 months) limits UC s ability to quickly respond to the possible loss of librarian professionals. It is important to note, however, that the University proposes no changes to the peer review process for major milestones which don't require such expediency. |
The next bargaining date is scheduled for Friday, February 1st.