The Union Lives On...

Many faculty on my campus grew upset with how our administration recently laid off numerous AFSCME employees. We organized a letter drive, and I thought I'd post what we created below. More recently, an excellent short documentary about the case has been made. I encourage everyone to see it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqldCYIxTOs

FACULTY SUPPORT AFSCME

We as Ohio University faculty support AFSCME’s protest against recent lay-offs. Last year, we were dismayed by high-level university administrators giving themselves hefty pay raises while asking for sacrifice from everyone else. These recent lay-offs represent poor decision-making about budgetary priorities.

As faculty we know how much work it takes to create clean classrooms, student centers, and offices. Too often we take this sort of labor for granted even while relying upon it. Indeed, the work that members of AFSCME perform is central to our overall mission as a university: To create a good environment for learning.

Balancing budgets on the backs of the poorest members of our community is no route to a core principle of our university community – the value of justice. It is our responsibility as faculty to point this out and ask our community’s leaders to reconsider their recent decision.

Kevin Mattson (Author)
Sandra Turner
Elizabeth Miller
Bernhard Debatin
Tracy Leinbaugh
Judith Grant
Thomas Vander Ven
George Korn
Donald Miles
Gene Ammarell
Mara Holt
Jaclyn Maxwell
Marsha Dutton
Norma Pecora
Joseph Bernt
Patrick Washburn
Albert Rouzie
Mariana Dantas
Julie White
Kevin Uhalde
Katherine Jellison
Kenneth Brown
John Gilliom
James Mosher
Elizabeth Collins
Daniel Torres
Joseph Slade
Phyllis Bernt
Judith Lee
Jaylynne Hutchinson