Jul 12, 2007

UC workers denied a voice in pension plan

Guest Opinion

State Sen. Leland Y. Yee

The University of California has again failed it workers. For too long, UC has prohibited workers from having any real voice in their pension plan governance. In fact, for over six years, they have unilaterally canceled elections to the UC Retirement System Advisory Board, preventing workers from any meaningful representation, even on a purely superficial advisory body.

Finally, in June, the UC held elections to the advisory group but made it nearly impossible for an estimated 10,000 employees to cast a vote, paving the way for two administrators to win the seats allocated for "workers." In effect, this was a sham election that has disenfranchised thousands of workers.

Over the repeated objections of workers and their representatives, UC held the advisory group election by asking employees to vote on the Internet using an e-mail account and a personal identification number (PIN) code on file with the university. However, many of the 9,000 service workers and some of the 10,000 patient-care employees represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 do not have Internet access or an e-mail account and PIN code, and therefore were unable to vote.

Workers without an e-mail account and PIN code who attempted to gain access to the elections process via the Internet were not provided even basic instructions on how to exercise their rights.

Unsurprisingly, two members of the administration were elected to the UCRS advisory group - Tricia Hiemstra, a benefits manager at UC Santa Barbara, and John Sandbrook, the executive officer to the administrative vice chancellor at UCLA.

At best, this flawed election was inept. At worst, it was an intentional effort to disenfranchise thousands of workers who were not provided e-mail accounts or do not have access to computers for their jobs. Moreover, UC officials never should have held an election that required computer literacy as a prerequisite to voting. In addition, UC failed to provide much of the voting information, including the ballot and PIN code setup, in the various languages UC workers understand. The result - many workers were never afforded a reasonable opportunity to have their voices heard.

Fortunately, the Senate Education Committee recently approved legislation that I am authoring that calls for workers to receive more than just a voice on the weak and discredited advisory board but shared governance of the pension plan itself.

The bill, Senate Concurrent Resolution 52, is a response to recent revelations regarding conflicts of interest in the management of the UC pension plan and the fact that the once top-performing plan is now significantly underperforming when compared to similar pensions.

The UC Retirement Plan is the only state public pension plan that is not governed at least in part by the workers who contribute to it. As a result of UC's questionable investment decisions, 120,000 UC workers are unfairly being asked to increase their contributions to restore the fund to fiscal health.

The administration at the University of California must begin to consider the interests of the students, faculty, staff and the public, and end its practice of managing this public asset as if it were a private trust. Our tax dollars must be managed and protected in a fully transparent, efficient and accountable manner.

Leland Y. Yee is assistant president pro tem of the state Senate. Sen. Yee is also a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley.