Outside contracts create staff concern

The IU Physical Plant administration plans to develop new ways to establish contract job order work on campus, which has some Physical Plant workers concerned.\nThe University is working with the Gordian Group, a national consulting firm that would help IU streamline the bidding process for hiring workers, said Physical Plant director Hank Hewetson.\nRandy Pardue, president of the IU Workers Union, said the outside contractors perform work slightly faster since they operate under a one-price bidding system, but the privatization aspect might cost IU employees their jobs.\n"(IU-Purdue University-Indianapolis) laid off many of their physical plant workers when they tried to do work with contractors and have been experiencing a lot of difficulty," Pardue said. "The fear is that these contracts will continue to erode away our work base."\nBut Hewetson said Physical Plant workers shouldn't be concerned about losing their jobs because the intent is to develop new methods of getting the same contracts.\n"The Gordian Group would just walk us through and help administer job order contracting in a more efficient way," Hewetson said. "We contract a lot of work at IU as it is now, and job order contracting is a different way of doing the same business we've always done."\nAlthough it is early in the process and nothing has been decided yet, Hewetson said he sees this is an easier way of hiring work because the firm would help IU find fixed prices for jobs.\n"What the (IU Workers Union) is perceiving as a threat is that job order contracting will replace workers," Hewetson said. "The vast majority of job order contracting are jobs that are larger than in-house staff are doing."\nHewetson explained that the Gordian Group would help identify the lowest cost provider up front so IU wouldn't have to go through the bidding process each time.\n"I understand that there is some threat since this hasn't been well-explained," Hewetson said. "But we're not that far down the road yet and there's no intention that we're going to use this process to replace in-house capability."\nDeputy Vice President for Administration Paul Sullivan said by working with the consultant, the University and Physical Plant can bid on certain work and the bidding process would run more smoothly.\n"From my perspective, if we can streamline the process, we can avoid delays and avoid a lot of red tape every time we want a project done," Sullivan said.\nBut Diane Crider, an electrician in the Physical Plant, is concerned she could lose her job if IU hires more outside workers.\n"I'm worried that people are trying to sneak some workers in the back door without the president knowing," Crider said. "I'm hoping (President Adam) Herbert will straighten this out."\nCrider said she is only aware of the information she hears from others in the IU Workers' Union or those around her, but she is concerned the Physical Plant might let her go in the future.\n"The plant has just opened up new jobs and they're trying to hire apprentices, so I didn't expect this to happen," she said.\nUniversity administration officials said the contracting project is on hold until certain details can be worked out.\n"We're rethinking it so we can work out issues that have to get cleared up from a purchasing standpoint," Sullivan said. "We're not planning on bringing in new people to work, just to streamline the bidding process."\n-- Contact senior writer Maura Halpern at mhalpern@indiana.edu.