It was adopted by vote of members and replaced a dues structure in which members could pick their own dues rate. In June, CUE mailed each of UC's 18,000 clericals a pamphlet about Fair Share fees and the basis for the deductions. Herrera and Covington visited others in the nation's capital with responsibilities for labor practices at the lab, which is funded entirely by federal money. LBNL and other national laboratories received much media attention in early spring because of lab management's public statements deploring discriminatory employment practices. All three of the people we saw in D.C., besides Congresswoman Lee, were featured in the diversity training stand-down at the lab this spring.
Mese people know what the problem is, and they have the clout to do something about it.
Lab employees have been raising the issue locally, as well. They have held early morning informational picket lines on the road leading to the lab gates, and have spread informational materials about their concerns and charges throughout the lab. Since the union was elected in late 1997, activists from each of UC's nine campuses, the LBNL, UCOP, and other smaller locations, have worked miracles to get the union up and running and to begin the long-term job of attending to clerical workers' needs. Literally hundreds of individual employees have come to CUE for help dealing with work-site problems and have received it. CUE has headed off unnecessary layoffs and unfair firings, and has even turned around some decisions to subcontract, saving literally hundreds of jobs.