Complete write-up of Kenyon Union Issues (and a quick note about Moominrecs)
Good grief, it's been a chaotic few days. Yesterday was full of psych weirdness, and today has been absolutely lovely, but I'll catch up on that in a bit. Kenyon stuff is more pressing.
First of all, quick administrative note: I've now switched moominrecs to crosspost to its own Twitter (moominrecs) instead of mine (moominmuppet), but have also actually finally set this primary journal to reliably crosspost to moominmuppet twitter. I've also created another Facebook, Moomin Recs, specifically for it to cross-post to. Feel free to add me in whatever context is most convenient, if interested.
Right as I was in the middle of all that, things went a bit haywire. I'm posting about the Kenyon part of that below, and it's as complete as I can make it, since keeping track of things on FB is a royal pain, and I expect to be involved in this for a while so I'm documenting.
Thursday night I found out that my college, Kenyon, is trying to outsource our maintenance department to Sodexo. As folks may have noticed a few weeks ago regarding my reunion, I love Kenyon with a passion. The maintenance department workers are a non-trivial part of why. These folks took me into their community and homes when I was at my most awkward and obnoxious phases, and are family to me. Following are my various FB posts and comments about it, as well as links to the basic story. My comments in bold, to prevent confusion.
Facebook group: Tell Kenyon College to Stop Outsourcing Good Jobs
"Kenyon College, my alma mater, abruptly announced recently that they will outsource good paying jobs that helped the local economy to Sodexo, a national company that has a record of creating low wage, no benefit jobs with no respect for workers' rights. This group is being formed to encourage those of us who believe in real community at Kenyon to take action to make things different."
"Call President Nugent today and ask her to reverse this decision. Ask her to protect good jobs in Knox County. Tell her that you expect Kenyon to live up to the highest possible standards when it comes to how workers are treated. (740) 427-5000 is the switchboard number. Ask them to connect you to the President."
Maintenance workers at Kenyon get shock from college
"Here is a letter from the workers who are losing their jobs. The letter went to all faculty and students:
Dear Kenyon Community,
We are the skilled trades members of the Kenyon maintenance dept. We are members of the United Electrical Local 712 and are under contract until June 30. On June 5th we met with the college to negotiate our contract. At that time we were told as of Aug. 1st we would no longer be employed by Kenyon College, instead we would be working for a facilities management firm named Sodexo. Sodexo is a company with a troubling record. If you don't believe us, Google them and decide for yourself.
To say that this has been a shock to us is an understatement, its like waking up from a nightmare every morning. But it is real. All non union employees in the maintenance dept. have also been affected. All managers, supervisors, secretaries and storekeeper. The custodial dept. will have the same fate in two years at the end of their contract.
All Kenyon benefits will stop, our retirement contributions stop, insurance, sick leave, vacation, everything. We have members with children in the GLCA reimbursement program. That all stops and they have to change schools or not go at all.
People that worked here with the thought to retire and have their insurance at retirement are over. It is totally unbelievable that the college we have worked for all these years would do something like that to us. We have combined service of 435 years to the college. We have 2 members with over 40 years of service.
If you think you know who you are working for here at Kenyon and your place in the Kenyon Community / Kenyon Corporation, you are sadly mistaken. If they can do this to us so easily, you all are not far behind.
Sincerely,
U.E. 712"
Petition: Kenyon College: Stop Kenyon from partnering with Sodexo
Petition! For a college that only graduates 400 a year, it's growing fast-almost 900 signatures already!
Faculty Responds to Sodexo Partnership
This gives me great hope and reconfirms my faith in Kenyon community in the face of Kenyon administration malfeasance.
Questions about who's affected:
Tom: How many employees does this affect? Kenyon's announcement of the public forum (https://today.kenyon.edu/node/278) implies that it affects only eleven employees, three of whom have decided to retire. The announcement also says that the employees who work for Sodexo WILL continue to receive GLCA tuition benefits, and that the benefits package will be the same or better than what they are receiving under their contract with Kenyon.
Are there more than 11 maintenance staff? I don't like Sodexo, but that is political. I don't like the way Kenyon did this, whaich was shameful. But those things don't matter as much as the impact on the Kenyon family -- the employees who are affected. If they are going to continue at the same wages, benefits, tutition benefits, and retirement packages, I'd like to know that. If the College's announcement is deceptive, I'd like to know that as well.
Matt: As I read that, Tom, the 11 people concerned are the ones who wouldn't be members of the union; there's a big no comment about the unionized workers, who number in the dozens if not hundreds. The 11 are being guaranteed certain benefits continue; the union members, no comment yet. For myself, I wonder how high a priority it will be for Sodexo to continue to guarantee GLCA tuition, lifetime insurance, and so forth, come the next round of negotiations.
I think most of us would be going to the barricades even if it really were just 11 people's employment at stake. But there are definitely many more shoes yet to drop.
Me: Matt, you said it better than I could. I absolutely do not trust that anything good can come in the long run from making our maintenance department no longer Kenyon employees. It puts everything on the table for them, each time up. And I don't doubt those legacy GLCA rights will eventually fall.
Not to mention access to TIAA-CREF, which was one of the huge perqs of working there, even as a non-academic (I was tech services for five years). It's one of the best and most stable retirement plans in the country, and the college's matching helped hugely, too.
Matt: Sarah, there's a lot I don't know about what's going on, but that comes from a comment by a current Maintenance worker on the @ALLSTU thread at thekenyonthrill.com:
"Please consider that each part of the Kenyon Community is receiving a slighlty different version of what changes will take place under Sodexo [and] the information keeps changing. As a Maintenance Employee the answers to questions that we ask about our future is generally 'you will have to work that out with Sodexo in your next contract.'"
Context on Sodexo specifically (although there is absolutely no outsourcing option that would be acceptable to me at all): Kick Out Sodexo! United Students Against Sweatshops
Me (in the Stop Kenyon community): I've posted in Class of 95 Community to spread the word -- who has what other years and can post in those?
My post in Class of '95:
Is everyone aware of this? http://www.mountvernonnews.com/local/12/06/08/maintenance-workers-at-kenyon-get-shock-from-college.php
If you're as furious as I am, we're over here: http://www.facebook.com/groups/185579338236293/
And this is the petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/kenyon-college-stop-kenyon-from-partnering-with-sodexo
If Yauncey and Juanita ever fed you and welcomed you into their home, if Lori ever picked things up at KMart for you because you didn't have a car, if you worked Paint Crew, if you have friends who were at Kenyon thanks to the GLCA tuition benefit... Please, please, please pick up the phone and call President Nugent as well. This is an uphill fight, and we need folks to be heard. 740-427-5000, College Switchboard.
My various random comments:
Disgusting. Will be calling; too bad it's already past business hours. I was involved with supporting the Maintenance department last time the college were complete shits to them, when they were locked out back in 95/96.
Just left a message at president nugent's office. Didn't plan it but my voice was shaking with rage and my hands are still shaking. Typing a pain. Alums call and make your voices heard. Sodexo for kenyon maintenance is a betrayal. More to come. I'm also writing a letter. 740-427-5000 college switchboard.
Does UE 712 have a facebook page? I'm on my phone and searching is a pain. Yauncey Newman. Lori. The paint crew guys. Every pig roast out in the country. They're my history in the community I love.
Closest I can come to finding one so far, btw: United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers
Local 712
(KENYON MAINT SKILLED TRADES)
Whoa shit. Mania just hit righteous rage. Watch the fuck out. #whyimanactivist
Just talked to eu 712. Gave my contact info, suggested they set up a facebook page we can friend in support. Informational picket happening on campus on Wednesday. Good day to call and voice support for them. May create alums in support community once I'm at pc.
How many of your friends at kenyon were there thanks to the employee tuition benefit? Outsourcing is about screwing the next generation and making kenyon even more class-isolated than it is. *rage*
Ronda's reply: I made the grades to get into Kenyon but my mom worked for just over min. wage so I could have a chance at a school where I'd be a person & not a number.Exactly. I worked for the college. It paid shit. The reason to do it is love and benefits.
How many Knox county students will the Peeps Roelofs Fund (the Peeps donations are directed toward students from the local county, who are often working-class) even have to assist if this trend continues?
Maybe Kenyon shouldn't oughta teach their students all that liberal artsy justice shit if they want to be able to do this kind of crap.
Updated: Faculty Responds to Sodexo Partnership
This gives me great hope and reconfirms my faith in Kenyon community in the face of Kenyon administration malfeasance.
So Friday I called the President's office, as mentioned, left a furious message and promise of followup letter, and also called down to the maintenance department to talk to Dave, the UE 712 secretary. He remembered me, and I expressed some rather incoherently enraged support, passed on my contact info and the idea about a Facebook community for UE 712 or Kenyon Maintenance (they'll probably have more freedom if they do it under UE 712 instead of Kenyon's "brand name"), and found out they're doing an informational picket on Wednesday. I still need to find out when, exactly, since I'm seriously considering asking Chad if I could drive him to work and borrow his car to go down there in support and talk to some administrators personally. I still need to get email or some other contact for Dave Cunningham or someone else in UE 712 -- if anyone has, please pass along!
Then I called Juanita, who I'd last seen during reunion a few weeks ago. Her husband Yauncey passed away last year, but she's still spicy and sharp as a tack. I want to talk a good deal about her and Yauncey in my letter to the administration, so I just wanted to check first with her to make sure it was OK. She and I caught up later that evening (I got her VM), and she'd called around to find out more, and we ranted to each other about it, and how angry Yauncey (one of the happiest and most peace-loving men on the planet) would be about this bullshit. She gave me permission to write about them and we exchanged email addresses, with a promise to send her a copy once I write it.
That's where everything is at the moment. I basically took today off from everything, and will be writing the letter tomorrow.
First of all, quick administrative note: I've now switched moominrecs to crosspost to its own Twitter (moominrecs) instead of mine (moominmuppet), but have also actually finally set this primary journal to reliably crosspost to moominmuppet twitter. I've also created another Facebook, Moomin Recs, specifically for it to cross-post to. Feel free to add me in whatever context is most convenient, if interested.
Right as I was in the middle of all that, things went a bit haywire. I'm posting about the Kenyon part of that below, and it's as complete as I can make it, since keeping track of things on FB is a royal pain, and I expect to be involved in this for a while so I'm documenting.
Thursday night I found out that my college, Kenyon, is trying to outsource our maintenance department to Sodexo. As folks may have noticed a few weeks ago regarding my reunion, I love Kenyon with a passion. The maintenance department workers are a non-trivial part of why. These folks took me into their community and homes when I was at my most awkward and obnoxious phases, and are family to me. Following are my various FB posts and comments about it, as well as links to the basic story. My comments in bold, to prevent confusion.
Facebook group: Tell Kenyon College to Stop Outsourcing Good Jobs
"Kenyon College, my alma mater, abruptly announced recently that they will outsource good paying jobs that helped the local economy to Sodexo, a national company that has a record of creating low wage, no benefit jobs with no respect for workers' rights. This group is being formed to encourage those of us who believe in real community at Kenyon to take action to make things different."
"Call President Nugent today and ask her to reverse this decision. Ask her to protect good jobs in Knox County. Tell her that you expect Kenyon to live up to the highest possible standards when it comes to how workers are treated. (740) 427-5000 is the switchboard number. Ask them to connect you to the President."
Maintenance workers at Kenyon get shock from college
"Here is a letter from the workers who are losing their jobs. The letter went to all faculty and students:
Dear Kenyon Community,
We are the skilled trades members of the Kenyon maintenance dept. We are members of the United Electrical Local 712 and are under contract until June 30. On June 5th we met with the college to negotiate our contract. At that time we were told as of Aug. 1st we would no longer be employed by Kenyon College, instead we would be working for a facilities management firm named Sodexo. Sodexo is a company with a troubling record. If you don't believe us, Google them and decide for yourself.
To say that this has been a shock to us is an understatement, its like waking up from a nightmare every morning. But it is real. All non union employees in the maintenance dept. have also been affected. All managers, supervisors, secretaries and storekeeper. The custodial dept. will have the same fate in two years at the end of their contract.
All Kenyon benefits will stop, our retirement contributions stop, insurance, sick leave, vacation, everything. We have members with children in the GLCA reimbursement program. That all stops and they have to change schools or not go at all.
People that worked here with the thought to retire and have their insurance at retirement are over. It is totally unbelievable that the college we have worked for all these years would do something like that to us. We have combined service of 435 years to the college. We have 2 members with over 40 years of service.
If you think you know who you are working for here at Kenyon and your place in the Kenyon Community / Kenyon Corporation, you are sadly mistaken. If they can do this to us so easily, you all are not far behind.
Sincerely,
U.E. 712"
Petition: Kenyon College: Stop Kenyon from partnering with Sodexo
Petition! For a college that only graduates 400 a year, it's growing fast-almost 900 signatures already!
Faculty Responds to Sodexo Partnership
This gives me great hope and reconfirms my faith in Kenyon community in the face of Kenyon administration malfeasance.
Questions about who's affected:
Tom: How many employees does this affect? Kenyon's announcement of the public forum (https://today.kenyon.edu/node/278) implies that it affects only eleven employees, three of whom have decided to retire. The announcement also says that the employees who work for Sodexo WILL continue to receive GLCA tuition benefits, and that the benefits package will be the same or better than what they are receiving under their contract with Kenyon.
Are there more than 11 maintenance staff? I don't like Sodexo, but that is political. I don't like the way Kenyon did this, whaich was shameful. But those things don't matter as much as the impact on the Kenyon family -- the employees who are affected. If they are going to continue at the same wages, benefits, tutition benefits, and retirement packages, I'd like to know that. If the College's announcement is deceptive, I'd like to know that as well.
Matt: As I read that, Tom, the 11 people concerned are the ones who wouldn't be members of the union; there's a big no comment about the unionized workers, who number in the dozens if not hundreds. The 11 are being guaranteed certain benefits continue; the union members, no comment yet. For myself, I wonder how high a priority it will be for Sodexo to continue to guarantee GLCA tuition, lifetime insurance, and so forth, come the next round of negotiations.
I think most of us would be going to the barricades even if it really were just 11 people's employment at stake. But there are definitely many more shoes yet to drop.
Me: Matt, you said it better than I could. I absolutely do not trust that anything good can come in the long run from making our maintenance department no longer Kenyon employees. It puts everything on the table for them, each time up. And I don't doubt those legacy GLCA rights will eventually fall.
Not to mention access to TIAA-CREF, which was one of the huge perqs of working there, even as a non-academic (I was tech services for five years). It's one of the best and most stable retirement plans in the country, and the college's matching helped hugely, too.
Matt: Sarah, there's a lot I don't know about what's going on, but that comes from a comment by a current Maintenance worker on the @ALLSTU thread at thekenyonthrill.com:
"Please consider that each part of the Kenyon Community is receiving a slighlty different version of what changes will take place under Sodexo [and] the information keeps changing. As a Maintenance Employee the answers to questions that we ask about our future is generally 'you will have to work that out with Sodexo in your next contract.'"
Context on Sodexo specifically (although there is absolutely no outsourcing option that would be acceptable to me at all): Kick Out Sodexo! United Students Against Sweatshops
Me (in the Stop Kenyon community): I've posted in Class of 95 Community to spread the word -- who has what other years and can post in those?
My post in Class of '95:
Is everyone aware of this? http://www.mountvernonnews.com/local/12/06/08/maintenance-workers-at-kenyon-get-shock-from-college.php
If you're as furious as I am, we're over here: http://www.facebook.com/groups/185579338236293/
And this is the petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/kenyon-college-stop-kenyon-from-partnering-with-sodexo
If Yauncey and Juanita ever fed you and welcomed you into their home, if Lori ever picked things up at KMart for you because you didn't have a car, if you worked Paint Crew, if you have friends who were at Kenyon thanks to the GLCA tuition benefit... Please, please, please pick up the phone and call President Nugent as well. This is an uphill fight, and we need folks to be heard. 740-427-5000, College Switchboard.
My various random comments:
Disgusting. Will be calling; too bad it's already past business hours. I was involved with supporting the Maintenance department last time the college were complete shits to them, when they were locked out back in 95/96.
Just left a message at president nugent's office. Didn't plan it but my voice was shaking with rage and my hands are still shaking. Typing a pain. Alums call and make your voices heard. Sodexo for kenyon maintenance is a betrayal. More to come. I'm also writing a letter. 740-427-5000 college switchboard.
Does UE 712 have a facebook page? I'm on my phone and searching is a pain. Yauncey Newman. Lori. The paint crew guys. Every pig roast out in the country. They're my history in the community I love.
Closest I can come to finding one so far, btw: United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers
Local 712
(KENYON MAINT SKILLED TRADES)
Whoa shit. Mania just hit righteous rage. Watch the fuck out. #whyimanactivist
Just talked to eu 712. Gave my contact info, suggested they set up a facebook page we can friend in support. Informational picket happening on campus on Wednesday. Good day to call and voice support for them. May create alums in support community once I'm at pc.
How many of your friends at kenyon were there thanks to the employee tuition benefit? Outsourcing is about screwing the next generation and making kenyon even more class-isolated than it is. *rage*
Ronda's reply: I made the grades to get into Kenyon but my mom worked for just over min. wage so I could have a chance at a school where I'd be a person & not a number.Exactly. I worked for the college. It paid shit. The reason to do it is love and benefits.
How many Knox county students will the Peeps Roelofs Fund (the Peeps donations are directed toward students from the local county, who are often working-class) even have to assist if this trend continues?
Maybe Kenyon shouldn't oughta teach their students all that liberal artsy justice shit if they want to be able to do this kind of crap.
Updated: Faculty Responds to Sodexo Partnership
This gives me great hope and reconfirms my faith in Kenyon community in the face of Kenyon administration malfeasance.
So Friday I called the President's office, as mentioned, left a furious message and promise of followup letter, and also called down to the maintenance department to talk to Dave, the UE 712 secretary. He remembered me, and I expressed some rather incoherently enraged support, passed on my contact info and the idea about a Facebook community for UE 712 or Kenyon Maintenance (they'll probably have more freedom if they do it under UE 712 instead of Kenyon's "brand name"), and found out they're doing an informational picket on Wednesday. I still need to find out when, exactly, since I'm seriously considering asking Chad if I could drive him to work and borrow his car to go down there in support and talk to some administrators personally. I still need to get email or some other contact for Dave Cunningham or someone else in UE 712 -- if anyone has, please pass along!
Then I called Juanita, who I'd last seen during reunion a few weeks ago. Her husband Yauncey passed away last year, but she's still spicy and sharp as a tack. I want to talk a good deal about her and Yauncey in my letter to the administration, so I just wanted to check first with her to make sure it was OK. She and I caught up later that evening (I got her VM), and she'd called around to find out more, and we ranted to each other about it, and how angry Yauncey (one of the happiest and most peace-loving men on the planet) would be about this bullshit. She gave me permission to write about them and we exchanged email addresses, with a promise to send her a copy once I write it.
That's where everything is at the moment. I basically took today off from everything, and will be writing the letter tomorrow.