We are library employees writing to our colleagues throughout the UC system to encourage you to sign a card in support of the New Alliance of Clerical Employees-CWA.

The time has come for a new leadership in UC's clerical bargaining unit, of which we are a part. Under the current union, we've been stuck in bargaining for 2 years with no end in sight and with little communication or help from our current union. In the meantime, library employees across the system have been faced with increasing workloads, reorganizations, elimination of positions, and, of course, pay cuts and layoffs.

We deserve better. This spring, thousands of our UC coworkers represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) won improved contract protections and substantial raises - up to 14.5% over the next 3 years, as a combination of cost-of-living and step increases.

Progress like this doesn't come easily. It requires a union with experience, imagination, intelligence, and a strategic vision. Many of us are joining with other clericals to build a new union, NACE-CWA, to provide this leadership. We want a union that preserves the tradition of democratic union activism among clerical employees and that also speaks to the special concerns of library workers.

But to elect a new union, we need to submit the signatures of 30% of the bargaining unit's members to the state's Public Employment Relations Board very soon. We must act quickly.

We urge you to go to www.nace-cwa.org, where you can learn more about NACE-CWA, and we ask you to join us in signing an authorization card for NACE-CWA. Let's show that library assistants - and thousands of our non-library coworkers - want a real choice.

If you would like more information or to get involved, please write to info@nace-cwa.org.

Together we can!

Craig Alderson, Library Assistant IV, Berkeley
Lark Ashford, Archival Technician, Berkeley
Claire Englander, Library Assistant III, Berkeley
Lori Hines, Library Assistant IV, Berkeley
David Kessler, Library Assistant IV, Berkeley
Ron Kieve, Library Assistant III, Los Angeles
Barbara McEnerney, Library Assistant III, Berkeley
Linda Morgan, Accounts Payable Specialist, Berkeley
Max Osinovsky, Library Assistant IV, Berkeley
Paul Priebe, Library Assistant IV, Los Angeles
John Ridener, Library Assistant IV, Berkeley
Andrew Shapiro, Library Assistant III, Berkeley
Baiba Strads, Library Assistant III, Berkeley
Lupe Villegas, Library Assistant IV, Berkeley
Matthew Weber, Library Assistant IV, Berkeley