3/29/13 BX - 01 - 001 -13

Dear Deborah Cohen, Thanks for meeting with us to discuss the SLC grievance filed by UAW 2865 in regards to the non-recognition of for-credit tutors as part of the UAWs collective bargaining agreement which affords them protections and compensation under our contract. We believe the hiring of for credit tutors violates the first article of our contract and all subsequent articles as a result of this. We also believe this practice harms both the tutors (for reasons stated above) and also harms UAW 2865 by violating the recognition of our collective bargaining agreement with the University. Based on our discussions at the Step 2 grievance meeting we do not believe that the work performed by for credit tutors is substantively different from the work performed by paid tutors. We do not believe SLC representatives present at the meeting were able to provide us with adequate information about the requirements for the courses that for credit students enroll in, or how for credit tutors are assessed in these courses. Additionally, we feel that this lack of clarity in the distinction the SLC offered between the labor of paid and for credit tutoring is evidenced in the application form, which refers to both forms of tutoring as work. Weve spoken to for credit tutors at the SLC who have told us about the practice of filling out time sheets to track their tutoring hours. We believe that this practice is a form of work-discipline. Tracking hours in this way also suggests that the primary way in which for credit tutors are being assessed is by the number of hours they perform tutoring work. Furthermore, as the hours and the kind of work that for credit tutors perform is standardized across the semester (4-5 hours of tutoring per week) we do not believe that this practice is consistent with similar field work requirements, which involve qualitative change over the course of a semester and which are generally assessed based on outcome rather than number of hours worked. The for credit tutors weve spoken with have told us about various forms of work discipline that their supervisors impose on them, such as being marked absent from work if they arrive more than 15 minutes late for tutoring, which cause stress. These tutors have informed us that any missed hours must be completed as drop-in hours before the end of the semester in order for the for credit tutor to receive a passing grade. At the Step 2 meeting on March 18th, Deborah Cohen noted that the justification for the practice of the SLC would be based on Article 25 of the collective bargaining agreement between UAW 2865 and the University of California, entitled Training and Orientation. Section A of this Article states that: All required training and orientation shall be considered part of the workload for the term, with the exception of pedagogy courses in which an ASE is

required to be enrolled. Said pedagogy courses and training requirements shall not be used to reduce the number of ASE appointments. We believe that the SLCs current practice of requiring dozens of tutors to take pedagogy classes that involve between 4 and 5 hours of tutoring work a week is inconsistent with the stipulations of Article 25 section A. The scale of the SLCs work study program involving multiple seminars per subject in a given semestersuggests that the work requirements of these pedagogy classes are being used to reduce the number of ASE appointments offered through the SLC. We would like as well to receive more complete data about employment/enrollment rates at the SLC for the past ten years, which we believe will further demonstrate that the work study program is being used in a way that reduces the total number of ASE appointments. Students taking pedagogy classes for credit are expected to work more hours tutoring than studying for or attending class. This work is central to the mission of the SLC. At the step 2 meeting, Cara Stanley noted that professors at UC Berkeley expect all tutors to perform high quality work, and that if a tutor enrolled for credit performed her or his tutoring work in an unsatisfactory manner, the potential negative review from a professor of this tutors work would reflect badly upon the SLC as a whole and would undermine the SLCs project of providing tutoring services to the UC Berkeley campus. Cara Stanleys statement implies that tutoring currently being done for credit is not supplementary to the work of the SLC, but rather that this tutoring forms a central part of the SLCs work. The amount of labor performed by those taking classes through the SLC is disproportionate in relation to other pedagogy courses offered at UC Berkeley (i.e. for new GSIs working in R1A classes)courses that generally do not involve any required teaching or tutoring labor. We hope that all of our arguments will be taken up in the evaluation of this grievance. In order to help clarify the various issues at stake in this grievance, we would also like to request the following materials from SLC administrators: Documentation of employment/enrollment rates of both paid and for credit tutors, as well as adjuncts, at the SLC from the past ten years. We would like information and materials concerning tutors in all disciplines and areas. Documentation of the origins of the work-study tutor training program. At the Step 2 meeting on March 18, we were told that this program began in the 1980s. We would like to receive all documentation from this moment that can be provided. SLC budgets from the past ten years. We would like to see these documents because we believe that changing funding rates might be related to changing rates of for credit tutoring at the SLC, and because we were told at the Step 2 meeting that if the SLC were required to pay all tutors (including those receiving credit) for their hours of tutoring work, the work study program might need to be discontinued. We would like to receive budgetary information that would allow us to assess this claim. Information about the policy and practice at the SLC for how new tutors can become paid tutors. Are there any written materials or institutional practices that would suggest to

new tutors that they must complete a semester of unpaid, for credit tutoring in order to be considered for a paid position? Finally, we would like to request all relevant correspondence or written material that has been shared this semester with for credit tutors by SLC staff members concerning course requirements, expectations about hours of tutoring work, and work activities.

Sincerely, Munira Lokhandwala and Amanda Armstrong Head Stewards, UAW 2865, Berkeley Unit