As IU workers suffer, so does IU

It is regrettable that the IDS did not cover the Labor Studies Brown Bag presentation called Outsourcing Jobs at IU on Thursday, Sept. 27. As vice president of the Communications Workers of America Local 4730, I believe that the IDS missed a forum addressing one of the most pressing issues on campus. We, as workers of IU, take pride in working for IU and give it our best to maintain it as a world-class institution. To gamble away our jobs for a few bits of silver is immoral. It appears that the majority of trustees seems to be indifferent to this because they have no less than 11 units on the table to be prospectively outsourced. Many issues were addressed at this forum, such as the bittersweet result of the struggle with the effort to prevent the privatization of the IU Bookstore and the IU Motor Pool. \nThe panelists included Communications Workers of America President Peter Kaczmarczyk and Professor Emeritus Patrick Brantlinger, as well as American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees President Dallas Murphy, (and they) concluded that this was an ideological move on the part of the trustees. This concept that the market can do no evil is rooted in the imagination. In cases of bookstore privatization, there was no invisible hand that made book prices drop. Dr. Brantlinger pointed out that he wouldn’t be surprised if book prices increased over time in order to make these profits which IU trustee Pat Shoulders simply said were “too good to be true.” Moreover, there were other hidden costs; for example, Enterprise’s car rentals do not provide IU parking, as IU fleet cars did, and the customer now has to purchase a temporary pass. One of the most shocking hidden costs is the inability of the neediest students to charge their books to the Bursar. \nIf this continues, the services to students and faculty will diminish because for the University to function properly, all components must be content in serving the University, not simply being cogs in a corporate machine. As workers and community members we will continue to struggle for justice on the IU campus. \nEdward Vasquez\nVice-President, Communications Workers of America Local 4730, IU Bloomington Campus