Welcome to my short biography page, and thanks for reading this!
About Me
My name is Rich McGee, and I've been here at CSUSB since 1981, both as a student and a full-time staff member. I'm currently assigned to the Office of Information Security, but during my tenure on campus, I've worked in a wide range of jobs.
Originally, I was an emergency hire, and thought I would be employeed for only a few weeks. The weeks turned into months, and somehow, amazingly, my bosses kept extending my position. Finally, in 1986 I was made a permanent employee, after having applied for my job more than 13 times (They kept extending my appointment.)
Here's a short list of my positions on campus:
Microcomputer Specialist, Instuctional Computer Consultant, Equipment Repair Specialist, Microcomputer and Campus Trainer, System Programmer, Programmer/Analyst and I am currently serving as anInformation Security Analyst.
My Union Background
When I was a new employee to the campus, I thought that the Union was a bunch of angry older employees without any real job to perform. I also mistakenly thought that the Union somehow "protected" bad employees from being fired.
All that changed when I went to work for a chronic "bad boss". I had always enjoyed an excellent working relationship with my superviors on campus. Then one day my department hired a new MPP manager who proceed to try and ruin my life. She had a basic inability to get along with people, and I made the top of her enemies list. Within a two year time, I had gone from being an outstanding employee to someone who dreaded coming to work. Things got so bad that my boss actually threatened to fire me, because I was working weekends (without pay) to ensure that a new, multi-million dollar computer system remained functional.
With nothing left except resign my position, I sought help from the Union. The campus steward explained my rights under the contract, and I quickly realized that what my boss was trying to do was technically a contract violation. I wasn't a bad employee, I just had a bad manager!
So I started reading my contract, and realized that CSUEU wasn't a group of angry employees, it was a group of passionate activists, people who really cared, and wanted to make a difference.
I decided to become one of them. I joined the Union, and learned how to "manage" my bad boss. It turns out that she was angry with me because my salary at the time was actually higher than hers! (I did more work than she did....).
When my bad boss was finally chased off campus, I decided to become more active within the Union. I became a steward, and really enjoyed helping other employees learn about their rights and the contract.
Eventually, I attended a CSUEU E-Board meeting (These happen 4 times a year), and met a great group of state-wide activists. Guess what? They had bad bosses too, and exactly the same problems that I did!
So I ran for vice-president of Statewide Bargaining Unit 9. I won that election, and spent the next 3 1/2 years bargaining for a fair contract. It was brutal. I was away on Union business almost half the time, sometimes for weeks at a time.
But the hard work eventually paid off, and we signed a fairly decent contract, one designed to bring "step increases" back to the CSUEU employees.
After that, I became Chapter President here at CSUSB. We've got almost 50% membership here on campus, and I'm proud of what my hard-working board accomplished over the past two years. We avoided layoffs, moved many employees into better working conditions, and really did enjoy an open and honest relationship with most campus managers. Hopefully, we've made the campus a better place to work.
Now, I'm back to being the Uni 9 Representative for our campus. As such, I promise the following to each of you:
Increased visibiolity and communication
Specialized Unit 9 Functions, such as informational meetings and lunches
Honest answers to all your questions.
If there is anything that I can do for you, please call me at 909-553-7275, or send me an e-mail: "rmcgee@csusb.edu" works best.
I look forward to hearing from you!
---Rich McGee
Return to the Chapter 320 Homepage
Maintained by Rich McGee