Press Releases
Teamsters Local 2010 Skilled Trades Workers at UC Irvine Ratify Contract
Workers Join Thousands of Local 2010 Members Receiving Historic Increases This Year
Press Contact: Aimee Baror Phone: (213) 220-0538 Email: abaror@teamsters2010.org
(IRVINE, Calif.) – Teamsters Local 2010 Skilled Trades members at University of California at Irvine (UCI) have overwhelmingly ratified a collective bargaining agreement with significant compensation increases, including 18.5 percent in average raises over the life of the three-year agreement. The new contract also contains significant language improvements, including daily overtime and increases in on-call pay. The members ratified the agreement by 98 percent with more than 95 percent of members turning out to vote.
Local 2010 was able to secure the agreement because UCI members stood together and took effective workplace actions, including numerous pickets and rallies, to show the employer their strength.
This win at UCI comes as members of Local 2010 across California receive historic raises under Teamsters contracts secured over the past few years. It also follows on the heels of successful strikes by Skilled Trades members at California State University, which resulted in the strongest contract in the bargaining unit’s history.
“We congratulate our Skilled Trades members at UCI for winning this outstanding contract, and all of our Local 2010 members across the state for the historic raises we are receiving this year,” said Jason Rabinowitz, Secretary-Treasurer of Local 2010. “These gains are the direct result of our hard work building a strong union that has shown that our members are united and ready to do whatever it takes—up to and including going on strike—to win the fair contracts we deserve.”
Other members of Local 2010 are also receiving strong raises this year under robust contracts previously won across the union.
Members of Local 2010’s largest bargaining group, the statewide UC Clerical and Allied Services (CX) unit of more than 15,000 workers, received an average 6.4 percent raise on July 1, on top of raises received in the prior three years of the current contract. Teamsters who achieved 20 years of university service received $1,000 longevity payments.
CX Teamsters have received raises more than 2 percent higher than nonunion UC workers each year, a key factor driving thousands of formerly nonunion workers to join Local 2010.
The local union has recently won legal cases extending union rights for thousands of UC workers who had been misclassified as nonunion. These workers now receive guaranteed raises and all other rights provided in the union contract.
At California State University (CSU), Skilled Trades Teamsters will receive unprecedented wage increases through the return of hard-won salary steps, reclaimed after a nearly 30-year absence from contract language. Local 2010 fought a multi-year battle for the step increases, navigating more than a year of tough negotiations with CSU, organizing countless member actions, initiating two separate strikes across the state, and enduring a subsequent five-day strike.
Effective October 1, CSU will transition workers to a new salary step structure, which will result in average raises of over 6.5 percent. Workers with longer service who have fallen behind due to the lack of step increases will receive up to two additional step increases. Over 80 percent of members will reach their “target step”—the appropriate step based on years of service—this year. By the end of the contract next year, 100 percent of workers will reach their target, correcting decades of salary inequity at CSU.
Skilled Trades workers represented by Local 2010 at five other University of California campuses will also receive 4-5 percent across-the-board raises in July, on top of the significant raises in prior years of their contracts.
“We are proud of the tremendous raises and improvements we have won in Teamsters Local 2010, but we are not resting on our laurels,” Rabinowitz said. “Next year, most of our contracts will be up for negotiation. Our members continue to stand together as a powerful union, gearing up for the fights ahead to build on what we have achieved.”
Teamsters Local 2010 is an affiliate of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, representing 18,000 workers in California higher education, including clerical, administrative, and skilled trades workers throughout the University of California and California State University systems. For more information, visit teamsters2010.org.