There will be
a Joint Council Meeting on July 19th in Los Angeles. An email from UAW
2865 has already been sent out (see below).
For those who don't
already know, the Joint Council is one of the statewide decision-making
bodies within our union, which represents Academic Student Employees at
all of the UC campuses except for UC San Francisco. The Joint Council
consists of the top leadership from each campus (Unit Chair, Recording
Secretary and Head Stewards) who come together four times a year to
make decisions that affect every campus.
An agenda for the meeting is
created by the President of our union local, and it's open to amendment at
the start of the meeting. So I do not have an agenda to share with you
unfortunately, but there are a number of topics that are commonly
discussed:
(1) Contract Enforcement (enforce our rights and benefits in
our contract);
(2) Increasing membership (organizing to increase the
number of union members);
(3) and other campaign/organizing ideas
brought by the Executive Board or other members of the Joint Council;
(4) various reports, including a financial report, president and vice
president reports about what organizing they have been up to and/or
where they think we should do as a union, etc. The next round of
contract bargaining may also be on the agenda -- the bargaining team
will start to meet this upcoming school year because bargaining is a
somewhat drawn out process and our contract expires September 30, 2009.
(5) Lastly, you can read below the text of a really important proposed
by-laws change that will be discussed and voted on at this meeting. At
the last Joint Council it was decided to reduce the number of
representatives from each campus (UC Santa Cruz went from 5 positions
to 3 positions); since there were pretty intense differences over the
proposed change, a somewhat less drastic proposal was proposed that
would increase positions slightly at each campus. At UCSC we'd go from
3 to 4 positions. I should note that we representatives at UC Santa
Cruz were extremely opposed to the original proposal to reduce
representation, seeing it as an unnecessary step toward further
centralization within the union, and a particular attack on our campus
in particular, which had all five positions filled and has been
particularly vocal in trying to get the local to move in a more
progressive, creative, and activist direction. The proposal was also
created by people at other campuses with no attempt to work with
representatives at UCSC. Were were thus blindsighted by a proposal to
radically restructure the Joint Council. We are supporting the proposal
to increase our representation from 3 to 4, to be voted on at the next
Joint Council, though we continue not to see any need whatsover to have
decreased representation in the first place.
At UC Santa Cruz there are three representatives that attend these
meetings: Sara Smith (Unit Chair), Laura Martin (Recording Secretary),
and Adam Hefty (Head Steward). In an election last May we were elected
-- two of us (Adam and Sara) had previously been in top positions --
Sara Smith was Unit Chair and Adam Hefty was Recording Secretary.
Though the official representatives are the ones who have the power
to vote, ALL members have a voice and the right to be present. If you
are interested in learning more or possibly coming to the next Joint
Council, please email me! If we carpool your travel expenses will be
covered by the Union.
In between these Joint Council meetings, the Executive Board and
the President of the local are empowered to make decisions for the
whole statewide union. See http://www.uaw2865.org to see who is on the Executive Board and who the representatives are from the other UC campuses.
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The Joint Council meets quarterly in January, April, July, and October.
The July Joint Council meeting will take place Saturday, July 19th at 10 AM in the UAW Region 5 office in Pico Rivera, CA.
NOTICE OF PROPOSED BYLAWS AMENDMENT
At the Joint Council meeting on July 19th, the body will consider the
following proposed amendments to the bylaws of UAW 2865:
In Article 8, Section 2: Replace 300 with 200 and 600 with 400 to read,
"Each Campus Unit will elect one (1) more than one (1) Head Steward for
each two hundred (200)members in good standing in the Campus Unit, or major fraction thereof, with a maximum of the number of Head Stewards to which the Campus Unit would be entitled if all individuals employed in the Campus Bargaining Unit were members in good standing, and a minimum of two (2). Each Campus Unit will elect a Campus Unit Chair and a Campus Recording Secretary, who will serve as Head Stewards for the first four hundred (400) members of the Campus Unit. Head Stewards will be elected by a simple majority of votes cast at the Campus Unit."
In Article 10, Section 3: Replace 300 with 200 and 600 with 400 to read,
"Each Campus Unit will elect one (1) more than (1) Head Steward for each
two hundred (200)members in good standing in the Campus Unit, or major fraction thereof, with a maximum of the number of Head Stewards to which the Campus Unit would be entitled if all individuals employed in theCampus Bargaining Unit were members in good standing, and a minimum of two (2). Head Stewards will serve as Joint Council representatives for the Campus Unit. Each Campus Unit will elect a Campus Unit Chair and a Campus Recording Secretary, who will serve as Head Stewards for the first four hundred (400) members of the Campus Unit. Head Stewards will oversee otherStewards.