Employees urged to vote in upcoming election
BY CYNTHIA LEE
UCLA Today Staff
An election is in the process of being scheduled for approximately
12,000 Administrative and Professional Staff systemwide so that
they can decide whether or not they wish to be exclusively represented
by the University Professional and Technical Employees/Communication
Workers of America (UPTE/CWA), one of UC’s labor unions.
About 3,000 UCLA employees with titles such as Analyst/Senior
Analyst, Admin-
istrative Specialist, Accountant, Buyer, Editor, Programmer/Analyst,
Student Affairs Officer and other professional staff titles will
be eligible to vote. The election was sanctioned after the union
filed a petition with the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB).
Depending on the administrative process chosen by PERB, ballots
may be mailed to employees’ homes as early as Feb. 11 or as
late as March 3. They will have three weeks to vote. In order to
be eligible to vote, employees must have held a job title cited
in the petition as of Oct. 31, 2003, and must have been in the unit
as of Jan. 4, 2004.
More information about voting dates will be provided when a specific
election schedule becomes available. In addition to being asked
whether or not they want to be exclusively represented by UPTE,
UCLA Medical Center employees will also be asked to decide whether
they prefer to form a separate collective bargaining unit, should
the overall vote be in favor of representation.
UCLA encourages all eligible employees to decide for themselves
whether they want to be exclusively represented by a union. A simple
majority of those who vote will decide the outcome of the election
for all members of the bargaining unit, including those who have
not voted.
Consequently, it is critical that employees understand how important
their vote is and have access to the information they need to make
an informed decision. In previous systemwide elections, large numbers
of eligible employees did not vote.
To find out more, go to: www.chr.ucla.edu/decideforyourself.htm
or www.chr.ucla.edu and click
on the Decide-for-Yourself logo.
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