IU support staff pushes for 'livable wages'

Over the sounds of Indiana Avenue traffic, Peter Kaczmarczyk voiced the “plight” of IU support staff: a need for better wages.

The Communications Workers of America 4730, a union representing many IU employees, held a press conference Friday at the Sample Gates pushing for higher raises for the upcoming fiscal year.

However, IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said the University cannot promise anything in the ongoing economic recession.

Kaczmarczyk, the president of CWA 4730, read a prepared statement while IU employees stood behind him with signs that read “Our families need your support” and “Support livable wages before buildings.”

“For years, staff salaries have slipped further and further behind inflation,” Kaczmarczyk said in his speech. “IU support staff have not received a raise larger than inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, since 2002.”

Kaczmarczyk also recognized the poor economy, but said IU is financially better off than its peers. The University just needs to decide the best way to spend its money, he said.

When Kaczmarczyk finished, two employees told their stories about how IU’s current wages are not enough to sustain a decent living in bad economic times and asked for support for their families.

“It’s not a livable wage,” said Bryce Smedley, one of the employees who spoke at the conference. “I struggle every day trying to pay the bills.”

While Smedley said he thinks the support staff is sometimes invisible, he believes they could get their raises with the help of the University and Bloomington community.

The other speaker, Cheryl Haium, said she also finds it hard to live on her current paycheck. She said she wishes IU would spend more money on people instead of buildings.

“The buildings may have to be there, but the people are the foundation,” Haium said.
But while the union members publicized they want IU to spend its money on wages before buildings, MacIntyre said the two come from separate funding.

Construction money is considered capital money, which comes from two main sources: the state and private donors. MacIntyre said the funding has to go toward buildings.

“We couldn’t redirect that money,” MacIntyre said. “That would be illegal. The donors would stop giving us money.”

MacIntyre also said IU is not “flush with money,” as Kaczmarczyk put it in his statement.

Salaries come out of the operating budget, which comes from state funding and tuition from students, but the operating budget already took a $5 million cut from the original budget.

For the next fiscal year, Gov. Mitch Daniels is recommending a $20 million reduction, but the University will not know how much it will receive until the end of April.

Since the University expects a drop in state allocations, MacIntyre said IU President Michael McRobbie is trying to reduce costs and minimize tuition increases by implementing decisions such as an administrative salary freeze and a committee to look at more cost-effective health care.

“The president is doing everything he can to protect faculty and protect staff, especially those in the lower pay grades, from being affected by these times,” MacIntyre said. “At this point it’s really too early to predict what we’re going to do or what we may be able to do.”

Despite economic woes, union leader Kaczmarczyk said he remains cautiously optimistic, and his organization will continue to advertise its cause.

“We needed to step up now and say staff need real raises, and we can’t afford a pay freeze or small raise,” Kaczmarczyk said. “We just thought if we don’t start speaking up now, it may be too late.”