Today I received an email from UPTE (union) about the outsourcing of technical and administrative positions at UCSF.
Here’s the email:
An article in Computerworld magazine by Patrick Thibodeau, confirms what we have been hearing: UCSF is outsourcing IT jobs. The service agreement that UC signed with HCL to outsource 17% of UCSF’s IT staff, can be leveraged by any campus at UC.
49 career employees have already received layoff notices, plus contract employees and vendor contractors. And we believe that this is just the beginning. If we don’t take action before these layoffs start, this could be the tip of the iceberg, and who knows what department is next to sell off our livelihoods?
UPTE is prepared to take action, starting with this petition to Janet Napolitano. There will be more action items to come, but what we need to know today is: Are you willing to help stop the outsourcing before it starts?
Here’s what I wrote as part of my petition signature:
I understand that budget shortfalls make us entertain desperate options, but college campuses are uniquely liberal environments not only because of the thoughts and discussions in the lecture halls, but also because of the diversity of the employees that support the students, faculty and administrative. Staff are uniquely members of the university community as well as the local community and transport between these groups their experiences working with people of all types: educated and uneducated, international and local born, wealthy and living on foodstamps. To my mind, staff are the vines that creep up the ivory tower that allow those within the tower to interact with the community at large. Likewise, the wisdom that is generated in the ivory tower is shared and spread beyond the walls of the tower because of that connection. When we outsource staffing and no longer pull from the immediate local, the ivory tower floats into the clouds and furthers the separation between the privileged and the non-privileged. Please consider other options before you begin outsourcing. – Robin Sease, UCB