Your message to Ohio University Administration
We are the dedicated Ohio University employees who make up the classified and non-faculty unionized university staff. Many of us have worked decades at O.U. and have devoted our entire work lives to fulfilling the mission of the university and meeting the needs of its students. We are the front line workers providing direct services to students all day, every day. And we are the lowest paid employees at O.U. In other words, we provide incredible value to the University.
Yet, many in our ranks have been laid off in the wake of O.U.’s budgetary challenges while high paid administrators, managers and supervisors are being retained. Some may argue that the administrators, managers and supervisors are also being asked to contribute to O.U.’s cost cutting measures through the imposition of pay cuts. But they are still employed. Many of us are not.
They are being asked to tighten their belts a little. Laid off workers are being ordered to give up employment altogether at a devastating cost to their families and our community.
Others in our ranks face different directives. Classified employees are now subject to unilaterally imposed changes to policies and procedures that govern how many paid hours per week we will be able to work; how many paid hours per week we can be ordered to give up and impose restrictions on the medical and other leave time we can utilize. These measures, part of the university’s “modernization plan” have little to do with the Covid-19 epidemic and more to do with O.U.’s broader fiscal problems. And like the layoffs, it is our ranks that are being most adversely affected by these changes.
We were not given alternative and mutually agreed upon choices like temporary salary and benefit reductions; reduced or alternative work schedules, shared services arrangements or furloughs to address O.U.’s budgetary concerns. We strongly believe equitable, mutually agreed upon solutions to O.U.’s budgetary problems exist and that layoffs should always be an employer’s last, not first, resort.
Adopting equitable, mutually agreed upon alternative cost cutting measures will ensure that the vital services we provide to students will continue to be performed. In these uncertain times, parents need to know that O.U. can and will continue to provide an enriching, safe, fully staffed and functioning educational environment for their daughters and sons and is not an institution just scraping by with a skeleton part-time workforce.
We therefore request that the Board of Trustees place all layoffs and policy changes on hold until mutually agreed upon alternative cost saving measures can be discussed and adopted. Our employee and union representatives are ready to work with the university administration to implement the mutually agreed upon cost saving measures O.U. needs and to avoid job losses.
Sincerely,
