University Decision Is Clearly Union Busting

The Jan. 28 article "For UB Custodians, Union Presence Fading" shows a disturbing trend in University at Buffalo and SUNY policy. According to the Civil Service Employees Association, the unionized custodial staff has dropped by 600 in the past decade at UB. In that time, our university has upheld a policy of replacing unionized workers with non-union contractors. This is clearly long-term union busting.

In fact, in the past three years the university has shown its anti-worker tendencies a number of times. During the 2001-02 school year, President William Greiner refused on more than one occasion to cut UB's contract with New Era Cap Co.

That year, New Era was investigated by the Worker Rights Consortium. The WRC found that musculo-skeletal disorders in the factory were several times the industry average. Forty-six percent of New Era workers had such disorders, along with a number of other abuses.

However, Greiner felt our university should remain neutral in this situation. Neutral apparently meant to remain one of New Era's best customers. During the 2002-03 school year and into the fall semester of 2004, Greiner refused to affiliate with the Worker Rights Consortium, an independent monitor that would help our university to ensure our licensed apparel was coming from responsible companies.

For years, workers at UB have been the target of union busting policies. Kevin Seitz, vice president of University Services, has said the university has saved money through contracting out union work.

It's vital to understand from where these savings come. When one saves money on non-union contractors, these savings often come from the destruction of healthcare benefits, pensions and the living wages of workers, benefits that generally lead to higher productivity and lower turnover, making claims of huge savings highly suspicious.

If UB is not going to respect the working people of our university, whether they are our custodians, our underpaid graduate employees or the workers that make our apparel, I assure them, there are many students that will fight them in their attempts.