AFSCME Local 1699 protests on College Green
Protesters stand outside College Gateway to rally against Ohio University’s budget and staff cuts. Photo by Izzy Keller.
By: Madeline Harden and Izzy Keller
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1699 members and supporters gathered at Alumni Gateway to rally against Ohio University’s budget and staff cuts, leaving them understaffed during the university’s record-breaking enrollment for the academic year.
According to a press release, “frontline university positions, including food service and cleaning staff, have been cut by 20 percent. That amounts to a total loss of nearly 100 positions.”
Athens County AFSCME Regional Director John Johnson, shared that after a recent labor management meeting, he was told “that they were at the correct numbers (of staff).”
Christine Wood Taylor, a custodial worker in Patton and McCracken Hall, shared her concern with the lack of workers and its impact on student health and safety.
“We're here asking President Sherman to rescind the cuts we're down approximately 20% in our bargaining unit staff,” Wood Taylor said. “Their (students’) parents pay a lot of money for people to come to school here. And we want to give them the best experience possible.”
Wood Taylor also shared it has become a norm to to work her assigned area and additional areas without additional pay or benefits.
Along with union members and its supporters, a number of local elected officials were present to show their support including: County Commissioners Charlie Adkins and Lenny Eliason, County Treasurer Ric Wasserman, City Councilmember Solveig Spjeldnes and Mayor Steve Patterson.
Athens Mayor Steve Patterson voiced his support of those rallying, “I think it's important to voice the fact that people have lost jobs and more are probably fearing the same.”
Ohio University is the largest employer in Athens County, according to Athens County Economic Development Council.
Associate Professor of English Joe McLaughlin and Professor of Political Science Julie White both joined the protest representing the American Association of University Professors.
McLaughlin shared his solidarity with AFSCME and recalled the mass firing of professors in 2020.
“(We are here) to kick the administration into gear to start using some of the money they're getting from all these freshmen, hiring people back,” McLaughlin said. “We are one university. It’s important for our students, it’s important for us to have good facilities, to have safe facilities.”
White shared that AFSCME Local 1699 does important work that deserves to be valued by the university.
“I really respect these guys because they carry the weight of maintaining a safe environment for us during really difficult conditions,” White said.
Holden Hodges, a second year psychology student at Ohio U, came out to support the union and spoke on the importance of unions.
“I’m always going to support the union and I figured that Ohio University is no exception to the fact that universities are businesses,” Hodges said. “What they’re gonna do is pay their bosses the most and they’re gonna f-ck over everyone else and pass the cost on to the consumers, with the consumers being the students.”
Hodges, also, spoke on the importance of students being actively involved in what’s going on at Ohio U.
“I think that if we’re (students) going to pay so much for universities, the least we could do is not only support the workers to help make the experience decent, but also have workers be able to do the best they can to make universities useful places of education.”
According to Ohio U, all Facilities Management and Safety employees have been given the opportunity to return to work, the culinary staff has returned to pre-COVID staffing levels and it has hired eight Residential Custodial Services employees and nine building and grounds staff.
“Approximately 20 job postings, containing more than 40 Facilities Management and Safety and Culinary Services-related roles, remain unfilled,” Interim Senior Director of Communications Daniel Pittman said in an email.
After a short gathering, speakers took turns addressing the community and university. Speakers talked about a range of issues, including community.
Ted Linscott, president of Southeastern Ohio Central Labor Council (CLC) AFL-CIO, started things off and talked about the importance of community solidarity. Linscott is a retired bricklayer and 42 year member of the Bricklayers Local 52.
“I submit to you that we as the workers in the local community have a symbiotic relationship with Ohio University, and Ohio University has a symbiotic relationship with us,” Linscott said. “So therefore, they’ve got some responsibility in this relationship to be a good member of the community and to do the right things around here.”
Linscott also talked about wages, in reference to the union’s contract ending in March. He estimated that the starting wage for janitorial positions was between $13-14 an hour; however, someone in the audience corrected him, saying that it was actually $12.50 an hour.
“I’m sorry folks, that’s poverty wages,” Linscott responded. “That’s poverty wages and it’s got to change. We’re doing more with less, you keep doing more with less. We didn’t do more with less, but sooner or later you get less with less.”
Adkins, a retired bricklayer who worked over 30 years at Ohio University and 20 years as the Local 1699 president, stressed the importance of a stronger relationship between the university and the union.
“When I was president (of local 1699), I could walk to Cutler Hall, I had the vice president’s cell phone number, I could walk in and have a conversation. But just like these folks in government, there’s so much going on, so much feud that people can’t get along anymore,” Adkins said. “They don’t want us, you folks, to have any rights. They don’t want to hear from us, so they need to get back to where they listen to local union leadership and do the right thing.”
Dan Maccaabee, a groundskeeper, spoke of how the union wants Ohio U students to have the best experiences possible.
“When I first started working here, in the room where I got my interview on the door it said, ‘students are not an interruption to our business, but the reason for it’ and I stand strong to that today,” Maccaabee said. “If you guys weren’t here, we wouldn’t be here and unfortunately, our current leadership, our current administration doesn’t seem to understand that or think about that.”
Neil Fowler, a self-identified janitor at the university, gave an impassioned speech. Throughout his remarks, he repeated that he feels that the university “doesn’t give a damn” about its workers. Fowler cited low wages, poor benefits and low employment numbers.
“This university used to be considered a good place to work. It was kind of a plum job here locally. It’s not anymore, because the people in this university don’t give a damn about the employees,” Fowler said.
Fowler also hinted at the possibility of a strike. The current AFSCME contract ends in March.
“I think there is probably more strike sentiment going on right now than since I was here. And it might be something that’s necessary to be done and if it does, look out. Because what pathetic level of service everybody enjoys now is going to disappear,” Fowler said. “So, we hope that the university will think about these things and will start to give a damn about somebody other than themselves.”
