The Laboratory reached tentative agreement on wages for Fiscal Year 2004 with CUE (Coalition of University Employees) late Tuesday night. The University of California-Office of the President (UCOP) sanctioned these local negotiations separate and apart from UC systemwide bargaining with CUE, which have also been ongoing contemporaneously with local Laboratory negotiations.

The tentative agreement, if ratified by the CUE membership, would provide for a 3.1 percent merit pool, 3 percent range adjustment and 0.4 percent pool for posted promotions/reclassification/individual equity adjustment. This agreement covers Laboratory employees only, and provides for the continuation of a merit-based pay system from Oct. 1, 2003 to Sept. 30, 2004. Other issues such as supplemental wage adjustments were also clarified. "This wage package is an eminently fair and equitable package for all parties concerned,” notes Bill Elkins of Employee and Labor Relations, “and both sides worked hard and diligently to achieve this mutually beneficial outcome."

The Laboratory Bargaining Team included Elkins; Karen Ramorino, Adminstrative Services Department (ASD); Sheri Freeman-Matterson, Financial Services Department (FSD); Tish Rzeszutko, Employee and Labor Relations; and Diana Attia, Matthew Mleczko, and David Wiedrick of Human Resources. Amy Bennett-Lazaro and Cherryl Palomar-Susar, both from Human Resources, provided administrative support. The CUE bargaining team consisted of Mark Covington, Chief Negotiator; David Hom, CUE Local 8 President; and Edith Perry, all of whom are also Laboratory employees.