Some IU employees, distraught over the uncertain future of their jobs, have begun organizing a grass-roots effort to combat a pending decision on University outsourcing.\nEmerging as an active voice over the last few weeks, the Communications Workers of America Local 4730 have organized a petition calling on the trustees to immediately end talks of all present and future outsourcing plans.\nAlong with the petition, disgruntled employees will hold a rally at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington, 2120 N. Fee Lane. The labor group will then move to Assembly Hall before the IU-Michigan men's basketball game.\nThe first large-scale, grass-roots effort opposing proposed privatization plans, which have been on the table for several months, comes just a few weeks before trustees are expected to receive recommendations and possibly take action on contracting the IU Bookstore and the IU Motor Pool to private businesses.\nA decision on outsourcing the motor pool could come as soon as the next board of trustees meeting, Feb. 1, said William Cast, an IU trustee.\nBut these efforts have already extended beyond employees whose jobs could be affected immediately. Curtis Wiggins, 55, a custodian at Forest Quad, has urged IU students and others to support the petition.\nThough contracting residence-hall janitorial work is not something that has been officially proposed for outsourcing, Mike Isenogle, another janitor at Forest, said it was better to start planning early than be sorry later. \nOfficials, including Residential Programs and Services Executive Director Pat Connor, have remained cautious when talking about whether the University should outsource services. But by maintaining what Connor calls a "high level of service," he said he thought RPS could convince the University not to privatize food services or other sectors of RPS, even though employees within the department have called RPS's operations inefficient.\nConnor said several worried employees have come to him expressing concerns that some of their benefits would be lost if the University contracted the jobs to private firms.\nThe dialogue between University officials and interested residents continued yesterday as the trustees and Terry Clapacs, IU vice president and chief administrative officer, held a video conference to field residents' questions.
An outsourcing success\nNationwide, contracting University services has become a popular method for administrators trying to slash nonacademic costs. But the privatization has angered labor activists, who say cuts in benefits and pay often follow a corporate takeover of the services.\nThe Penn State University Bookstore in University Park, Pa., is a part of the 34 percent of university bookstores nationwide that have privatized operations, according to the National Association for College Stores.\nPenn State just renewed its contract for another 10 years with Barnes and Noble after being pleased with the book chain's service, said Stanley Latta, director of Unions and Student Activities at Penn State.\nPenn State named the bookseller its "corporate partner of the year" in 2006.\n"My personal feeling is we have had a very productive relationship with Barnes and Noble," Latta said.\nHe said the book chain has aided students by donating millions of dollars to Penn State's scholarship fund since the beginning of the two parties' agreement, about 10 years ago.\nLatta said he didn't think any jobs at the bookstore were eliminated after Barnes and Noble's takeover. However, he said book prices did not fall. \nSome IU trustees have said book prices at IU would decrease if IU invests in a similar plan.\n"The prices of the books are determined by the publishers," Latta said. No matter who operates the bookstore, he said, prices depend on what publishing companies charge.
Nationwide examination\nAround the country, several studies have examined the implications of privatizing services and the major concerns among many university administrators. One report, published by the Institute for Higher Education Policy in 2005, said universities could experience trouble adjusting to the corporate culture.\n"Unlike business, the academy is not a top-down entity," the report said. "Moreover, it is not influenced by a profit motive."\nEven closer to home, an IU news release on Tuesday reported the findings of outsourcing research conducted by School of Public and Environmental Affairs professor Sergio Fernandez, with Craig Smith and Jeffrey Wenger of the University of Georgia.\nThe research found that outsourcing government services often led to fewer full-time government employees.\n"With privatization the public sector is getting more temporary workers, part-time workers and seasonal workers who don't have job protections or benefits and have not gone through the official civil service hiring process that includes thorough background checks and exams," Fernandez said.
