Teamsters and UC reach tentative deal in which employees get raises

The University of California announced this week a tentative labor agreement with the Teamsters union, which covers approximately 12,000 administrative, clerical and support workers.

More than a dozen workers protested outside of UC Merced in January, demanding higher pay. They are among the nearly 100 UC Merced employees represented by Teamsters Local 2010, according to union representatives.

The new contract calls for a 3 percent increase every year for employees, and will be effective, if adopted by Teamsters, through March 31, 2022, university officials said Thursday. Negotiations have been ongoing for almost a year.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement that maintains competitive wages and benefits for our clerical colleagues and recognizes the important role they play in keeping our campuses and medical centers running smoothly,” Dwaine B. Duckett, UC vice president for human resources, said in a statement.

The university has also offered a $1,200 bonus per clerical employee upon ratification of the contract, except for certain employees at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, officials said.

The typical UC clerical employee will pay an average of $32 a month for health care, or $384 per year, officials said. The contract also includes retirement benefits.

The union did not return a request for comment.

This story was originally published March 24, 2017 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Teamsters and UC reach tentative deal in which employees get raises."