Messages to Management

Now is the time for us to work together to support each other through these very difficult times.

Now is the time for us to talk honestly, openly, without playing games of one-upmanship and bargaining as usual.

It is not the time to make outrageous demands on those who serve the students, the same students that are the very reason OUS exists.

It is not the time to drive a wedge between administration, management, and classified members of the OUS team. The proposal submitted by OUS is just that; a wedge that polarizes members of the same family and divides our house at a time when we must pull together or else see our mission, our students, suffer because of unrealistic demands placed on a few.

We have been asked to take holidays without pay to ease the effect our absence will have on the operations of the university. That might be something that we could do to support the students, but it would have to be something that EVERYONE does.

We have been asked to allow you to put us on unpaid leave anytime you want to. That is not fair, nor shared.

We have been asked to let you use the fact that we are and have been understaffed against us by losing accrued vacation without any effort by you to mitigate scheduling so that the vacation leave can be used as designed; you want to just take it away, too bad for us. That is not fair, nor shared.

We have been asked to forego pay increases through cost of living and step increases, effectively ignoring merit. During these times, that is reasonable on its face, but with the type of bargaining approach we have experienced over the years, there is fear that you will once again use this against us. In the past, restoration of a temporary sacrifice has been touted by you as a raise. It is not a raise, not in any way. It is a restoration. Any future contract agreement would have to be guaranteed to start from where we were before the temporary sacrifice, and not be considered as part of any increase. Again, it would be a restoration.

Most disturbing and patently egregious at this time are the different treatment of various groups within our educational family. At a time when you are asking us to give up, take reductions, suffer losses that affect not only us but our families, you are giving raises in pay to others! That is intolerable and extremely divisive.

It is inappropriate and demonstrates a vivid disrespect for classified employees that you would use the current economic situation to try to manipulate the contractual agreements around working conditions that have been mutually established over the years. Detrimental actions like these now are remembered long after they occur, and become stumbling blocks to future cooperation. It is hard to look forward when you are watching your back.

We need to work together, in fairness, in caring for each other as best we can under the situation, to weather this storm and keep our students well served.

Now is the time.

Mike Mays
OS2 in Career Services

Dear Sirs:

We all know the state the economy is in. We all know that the situation is very grave. We all understand that we all have to tighten our belts to get through this.

The operative word in that statement is "all". Everyone, not just classified staff, should bear the burden.

Asking classified staff to take unpaid "furlough" days, changing contract language to make furlough days mandatory at management's desire, freezing steps, denying COLA's, denying classified staff the vacation cashout even though we are so understaffed that people can't take vacation time so their accrual levels go over 250 hours and they lose the time, poof!, and taking away bumping rights for anyone unfortunate enough to have gotten any discipline in three years...what is this all about?

Are management being required to take "furlough" days? Are they being denied COLA's? Classified staff received hard-won raises of 3.2% or $85 November 2008 and 3% or $80 July, 2007. And notice the "or $80/$85" in our contract—that's because 3.2% of my salary and many of my co-workers is less than $85. Think of that. What is 3.2% of your salary?

Faculty have received at least 6% this year and they got at least that much last year. That's each year faculty got raises of 6% or more. Each year. I ask you. Quite a contrast.

And yet who is being asked to take the big hit to help OUS try to stay solvent? Classified staff. Classified staff who are walking around in old shoes, driving old cars, trying to keep their bills paid, and hoping to God that they don't get sick and have big medical bills. Shared sacrifice? I think not.

All in all, one could say that those who have the most, get the most, but those that have the least lose even that little. I realize this sounds biblical, but I don't think the Scripture writers were thinking of the treatment of University workers.

We are asking for a shared sacrifice. We know that the Governor required the DAS managers who received the 5% raise to give that up. Is OUS doing something similar? Are those who make the most money being required to step up to the plate and do their fair share? 3.2% of mine and may other University workers is less than $85. What does 3.2% of your salary come to? Would you be willing to give that up to help save the University system? One wonders. Imagine how much 24 furlough days would cost classified staff and how it would hurt. It's something to consider.

Please find it in yourselves to make the burden equally shared. Classified staff have always been willing to do our part to help out. But it can't be asked of us to do it all.

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,

Deborah Dombrowski,
Library Technician 2, The Valley Library, OSU
and Vice President, SEIU Local 503, OPEU, Local 083 at OSU
(on my break)

Mr. Kenton,

Our university employees are a hard working, intelligent group of people who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Respect for the fact that they are working very hard to accomplish their jobs, even when short-staffed with low wages. They stay in the jobs because they believe in education and in our young people’s future. They get it; these are hard economic times. They have shown repeatedly that they are willing to share the sacrifice and step up.

I urge you to do everything within your power to see that they are treated fairly in these hard bargaining times. OUS has presented a very disrespectful proposal and is trying to take advantage of these hard times with attacks on our seniority; and attempts to restrict our stewards’ rights, our access to organizers, and even our layoff rights. These are union-busting tactics and a kick-them-while-they’re-down approach to bargaining. These subjects have nothing to do with economics; this is a time when money is nonexistent; this is a time when rights should be strengthened, not attacked.

Please encourage the OUS bargaining team to settle these non-economic issues quickly and fairly, so the employees can feel that the university wants to see them treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.

Sincerely,

Maggie Neel

Local President & Steward

SEIU Local 083, SEIU Local 503, OPEU

541-737-3366

Maggie Neel (Office Specialist II)

Statistics Department

Oregon State University

44 Kidder Hall

Corvallis, OR 97331

Fax 541-737-3489

541-737-3366

From: Schmidt, Janet
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 2:10 PM
To: Kenton, Jay; Ray, Ed; Pernsteiner, George
Subject: Economic hard times and your classified employees

Mr. Kenton, President Ray, and Mr. Pernsteiner,

I am an accountant for OSU’s first business center and I am writing this missive during my lunch break.

I have worked at OSU since 2002. For the first three years I worked at the bottom of my classification because of the wage/step freeze. As a single woman acting as head of household, with two children enrolled in college (one in a private school), it was impossible to make ends meet on the less than $30,000 per year that I was paid.

I am more than willing to be grateful that I have a job in these difficult times and to share in the economic hardship that the state and university’s very real budget problems create for us all. However, I do not think that the current proposals for contract changes that OUS has put forward reflect a spirit of sharing the burden of difficult economic times.

While personnel costs make up 80 percent of the budget for OSU – classified personnel costs make up only 16 percent of that 80 percent. I suspect that the figures are similar across OUS. You are not going to derive great savings from such a small portion of the budget pie.

In the interest of fairness, I believe that most classified employees would be happy to share the hardship, but only if that hardship is indeed shared by everyone else in OUS.

During the time that I was the accountant for the College of Pharmacy, I watched as professors received 4% increases from OSU, after the college had increased their pay to better reflect salaries in the private sector. What this meant was that while I saw a few 2-percent cost of living increases as a classified employee, the unclassified workers were given what amounted to an average increase of 22 percent over a period three years. I can document this.

I realize that this one college is not reflective of the entire system – but if you expect classified employees to take a hit because of the economy, then you need to make the language of such an agreement specify that classified employees will SHARE in the hardship with all of the coaches, professors, administrators and other unclassified employees. And further, you need to recognize that just because this is a contract, when conditions change, NO ONE should receive any increases until everyone can.

Universities are, by nature, hierarchical and driven by status differences – however, just because I am a classified employee does not mean that I do not possess advanced degrees, nor does it mean that I am more greedy or less deserving than those who have higher status. And please remember that a 4.6% decrease in salary is not going to have the same economic impact for a professor who makes $100,000 per year and an OS1 or Library Technician who makes less than $30,000 per year.

Janet Schmidt
Accountant
106 Dryden Hall

Health Sciences Business Center

Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97331
(541) 737-5795

Dear Mr. Kenton,

I’m an OSU classified employee in the Registrar’s office. I’m also a union member.

I’m willing to take a temporary pay cut to help out higher education in Oregon. However, I believe OUS should seriously consider a stair-step approach to salary cuts—the higher the salary, the larger percentage cut. Some OSU employees make so little that even small cuts seriously harm them.

I don’t appreciate OUS’s cynical use of hard times as an opportunity for aggressive union-busting attacks on seniority, layoff rights, access to organizers, and steward rights. This is counter-productive to morale and offers no significant cost savings.

Sincerely,

Larry M. Bulling
Steward, Local 083, SEIU Local 503, OPEU
larry.bulling@oregonstate.edu
541-737-9889

From: Harrelson, Barbara

To: Kenton, Jay; Pernsteiner, George; Ray, Ed

Cc: Neel, Maggie; Dombrowski, Deborah; Mays, Mike; Herring, Cheryl L

Sent: Tue Apr 28 19:12:08 2009

Subject: Fostering Good Will through Bargaining

Dear Gentlemen,

I am an OS1 and I love working at OSU. I’ve been working here with students and colleagues for almost nine years, beginning in Housing and Dining for six, and now in Career Services.

When I first started my new job I attended all the orientation programs and visited the various departments for new employee services, and I remember I was struck that the people who were helping me, the administrative backbone of this institution, appeared to be people just like me: sincere and hardworking folks around middle age. Everyone I seemed to come in contact with was knowledgeable, friendly, respectful and very helpful. I had just moved here from Alaska and was fresh from taking classes for three years at UAA working toward an English degree. I remember thinking, Wow, this university couldn’t function without these people (classified staff), they are the backbone and the nuts and bolts of this institution. Why did I not notice this when I was at UAA? But as a student I had had a different perspective.

Nevertheless, I still see these folks this way today, and I would simply like to ask you to treat them with the fairness and respect that they deserve. What do you have if you don’t have your people working with you toward the same goals? We cannot educate our sons and daughters without them, and in this uncertain economic climate, we are all facing a time when encouragement and support are so necessary, not insult and unreasonable demands. As you can see, this kind of resistant and unfair bargaining has already begun to create an atmosphere of antagonism, divisiveness and mistrust.

Please think about these employees as assets, not liabilities. Think about who you can inspire in hard times, not who you will provoke and discourage. Take care of your people and they will take care of your interests, now and in the future. How you treat us today, will not be forgotten.

We are all aware that these are difficult and uncertain times, and we know that cutbacks are coming. But from what I have seen and the folks I have talked to, the majority are willing to pitch in, in a spirit of equality and fair play. I appeal you to deeply consider the people whose lives you will profoundly affect and strive to maintain a bargaining environment of sincerity and good will toward all.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Sincerely,

Barbara Harrelson

Receptionist in Career Services

From: Rievley, Sandy

Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2009 3:36 PM

To: Kenton, Jay

Subject: Bargaining Proposals

Sirs:

I think you all ought to be ashamed of yourselves for even thinking about justifying the proposals you have laid out for the OUS workers.

While that "little 4.6%" that you're all talking about taking back from classified workers’ pay is a "minor take back amount" from your view point, YOU DON'T HAVE TO TRY AND LIVE ON AND WITHIN A BUDGET AS LOW AS THIS AND PROBABLY NEVER REALLY HAVE!

A great many of us have worked here for the majority of our working lives, making just barely enough to pay the bills—never mind the luxuries you all take for granted. Finally, when we break even with the board, you come up with these scenarios. Your little take back just pushes us farther in a hole that we have a feeling you may just try to cover—with us in it! From our point of view, that is a very real possibility!

Tell me something. If it were YOUR mother or sister or wife or brother in this situation, just how would you REALLY feel about the attempted justifications you are attempting to use against the people who do everything they can to help keep the colleges running smoothly and on an even keel?

Better yet, how would all of the profs, deans and presidents manage if they didn't have the people doing your correspondence and mailing, do the purchasing so you have your pens and pencils and paper and a myriad of other things on hand to keep your offices going smoothly. Or the people who deliver the campus mail, do the printing and mailing of your brochures, deal with the public on a steady, daily basis, answering questions, solving problems, and dealing with an overwhelming amount of student problems and solutions.

We aren't just "classified" staff—we are partners working side-by-side with you to keep the entire operation going!

When are you going to start treating us as such?

Sandy Rievley

Office Specialist

4-H Youth Development Education