Wage increases included in union deals

UC made remarkable progress with labor negotiations in December, reaching tentative agreements with four major unions representing more than 5,000 clerical employees, librarians, nurses, research assistants and technical employees on the UC Davis main and medical center campuses.

Within a two-week period, UC officials reached agreements with:

• The Coalition of University Employees on a new contract for UC's clerical employees through Sept. 30, 2008. Under the agreement, clerical employees will receive wage increases of approximately 12 percent over the next three years contingent upon state funding, including a 3.5 percent increase retroactive to Oct. 1, 2005, when other UC employees received increases.
• The California Nurses Association on a new two-year contract for UC's nurses. The CNA membership has since ratified the agreement, under which UC will give all UC nurses 4 percent salary increases on Jan. 1, 2006, in addition to the market increases that UC gave to nurses in September while still at the bargaining table with the union. In addition to UC's proposals on wage increases, CNA also agreed to accept the changes to UC's 2006 health insurance plans as well as not to conduct any strikes against UC in sympathy with other unions for the life of the contract.
• Communication Workers of America, Local 9119, on new, two-year contracts with UC's research support professionals and with its technical employees, through June 30, 2008. The two employee groups have since ratified the agreements, under which they will receive wage increases of approximately 12 percent over the next three years, contingent upon state funding, including three percent increases retroactive to Oct. 1, 2005, along with a $220 signing bonus.
• University Council-American Federa-tion of Teachers on a new contract for UC's librarians through March 31, 2008. UC has agreed to keep the details of the agreement confidential during the union's ratification process. Once the contract is ratified, UC will make details of the agreement available.

Campus launches new broadcast Web site

A new Web site showcases the campus's broadcast news shows that air routinely on local public television.

The site, broadcast.ucdavis.edu, eventually will include the complete archives of all NewsWatch pieces shown on KVIE Channel 6, Northern California's PBS station, since 2002. Produced by broadcast specialist Paul Pfotenhauer, each segment is viewable in streaming close-captioned Real Media on the Web site. And each video is captioned for the hearing impaired.

On Channel 6, the NewsWatch episodes run between station breaks on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and are repeated on weekends.

The original Web site was started three years ago and converted about a year ago to a database-driven site with only about 25 videos. It took about three months to load in the 100-plus new videos.

The new site also contains feature-length programs and documentaries from University of California Television as well as information on how to order NewsWatch videos.

Student fee increases possibly rescinded

Over the holiday break, the Schwarz-enegger administration told reporters that the governor's budget will include additional state funding to "buy out" the 2006-07 student fee increases already approved by the UC Regents and California State University Trustees. The Regents' action explicitly included a statement that the fee increases would be rescinded if the state provided sufficient funding and also fulfilled the rest of the compact, so the university welcomed the proposal. The final outcome is dependent upon action by the Legislature. More information can be found at www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/2005/nov16a.html.

Business competition seeks participants

Little Bang, organized by UC Davis CONNECT, is a poster competition for graduate, post-doctoral and undergraduate students in the sciences. Cash prizes of $3,000 will be awarded to each winning team. Winners will also qualify to compete as semi-finalists in the Big Bang! Business Plan Competition.

The deadline to submit posters is Friday, Jan. 27. Students interested in participating in the competition should contact Thomas Spahr at tspahr@ucdavis.edu or 757-3569. More information is available at littlebang.ucdavis.edu.

Senate award nominations welcomed

The Davis Division of the Academic Senate invites nominations of candidates for the Distinguished Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching and the Distinguished Teaching Award for Graduate and Professional Teaching.

Send nominations to Kathy von Rummelhoff, Academic Senate, or e-mail to ksvonrummelhoff@ucdavis.edu. The deadline is Jan. 12.

The senate also invites nominations of candidates for the 2005-06 Award for Distinguished Scholarly Public Service. The honor is given in recognition of significant contributions to the world, nation, state and community through distinguished public service. All letters must be received by 5 p.m. Jan. 9. Nominations should be addressed to The Committee on Public Service, Academic Senate Office, 311 Voorhies, attn: Kathy von Rummelhoff. For more details, call 752-3920 or visit www.mrak.ucdavis.edu/senate.

Free trade conference scheduled

The promises and pitfalls of freer trade for California agriculture will be the focus of a Jan. 13 conference in Sacramento examining the impact of the 12-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The conference, sponsored by the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics at UC, will be held in the Sacramento Hilton.

Panelists will include faculty members from UC Davis and UC Berkeley. Speakers from UC Davis' departments of Economics and Agricultural and Resource Economics will be Philip Martin, Rob Feenstra, Roberta Cook, Colin Carter and Ed Taylor. A complete conference agenda is available online a giannini.ucop.edu/NAFTA_Agenda.htm.