Local 34 Members in the Central/Science Area Ask for Department Heads’ Support in Taking on Provost’s Budget Cuts

Union members across the Central/Science Area have circulated a letter asking our department heads to join us in calling on Provost Polak to stop actions that threaten the partnership we’ve built with the University over the past decade. We are committed to continuing this partnership, but recently there have been troubling signs that the Administration does not share that commitment, including:

• outsourcing and layoffs in the ITS department that violated our members’ contractual rights;
• layoffs and threats of additional layoffs of Local 34 members in the Medical School in spite of growth in both workload and revenue, and in spite of the assurances of a top University administrator that those positions were secure; and
• discipline of Local 34 members without due process or the establishment of just cause, in violation of our contract.

Union committee members from these departments delivered the letter to their department heads, requesting that they join us in asking the Provost to restore our budgets and staffing to appropriate levels and recommit to a partnership with our union.