Downsizing and Degrading

The following conversation was conducted anonymously as the worker with whom we spoke made it clear that workers have gotten into trouble when they speak out about some of the negative consequences of restructuring or downsizing.

A.O.: You’ve worked at S.U. for almost eleven years and have seen quite a few changes during that time. Most recently S.U. has begun a long-term process called restructuring or downsizing. In a past conversation you said that restructuring or downsizing amounted to “cutting a lot of indians and keeping most of the chiefs.” Could you explain what you meant by this description?

S.U. Worker: Well, they’re getting rid of a lot of secretaries across campus; the people who do a lot of “scrub work,” the front line people and then expecting those who remain to pick up the slack. And, at the same time, keeping most of the high paid employees, the administrators who make these decisions. They’ve got people doing twice or three times as much as they used to do. It isn’t fair. I’ve heard administrators talk about cutting high paid employees but I have yet to see it.

A.O.: Were you or was anyone you work with consulted about downsizing? Who should be cut? What should be cut?

S.U. Worker: As far as I know no one [on the front line] was consulted.

A.O.: That doesn’t sound very democratic since these are the people that are providing student services: cleaning up buildings, cooking and serving food, keeping records . . .

S.U. Worker: (laughter). You got it. They’ve cut money to the bone.

A.O.: You’ve mentioned that some of these cuts have left buildings attended by only one person, sometimes a woman alone until late at night. This doesn’t fit very well with the administration’s widely professed and publicized commitment to women’s safety?

S.U. Worker: I know of a student, a woman, who was left in charge of one of the buildings all by herself; which is very dangerous, putting her at risk to save costs. She decided to shut down a few minutes early one evening because there was no one using it and she was suspended.

A.O.: What does that say about the university’s commitment to fight against rape or to make the campus safe for women?

S.U. Worker: I don’t think they’re really committed to fighting sexual harassment. They overlook a lot. People are afraid to report some of this stuff [sexual harassment] because if they report it their jobs are in jeopardy. We’ve had a number of students and workers who’ve been sexually harassed by this one individual but don’t report it because they know they will be . . . Well, one student did report that this person was harassing some of the women who worked with him. That student was basically told to mind his own business. That’s a lot of baloney because the kid was doing the right thing. The kids don’t have that much power.

A.O.: So what should students do if they’re having a problem?

S.U. Worker: I think students are better off calling their parents than they are calling the administration because their parents are paying the money and they [the administration] definitely cares about that.

A.O.: What are your thoughts about tuition hikes? . . . students are protesting again this year and . . .

S.U. Worker: I don’t blame them. For what they get they’re paying through the nose!

A.O.: Well, I did notice that they’re putting in a new $500,000 scoreboard at the dome.

S.U. Worker: (laughter). Yeah. Right.

A.O.: How would you describe the general mood among workers as S.U.?

S.U. Worker: Kind of like (shrugging shoulders) “Oh, God, what next.” They know they’re low paid. They get the perk of tuition for their kids and a lot of people are here for that reason.

A.O.: With unemployment so high S.U. seems to have the upper hand.

S.U. Worker: They’ve got them, if you’ll pardon the expression, by the short hairs. They can’t complain too much. I know people tried to unionize in the past and the threat was implied.

A.O.: Threat?

S.U. Worker: If you unionize you won’t get free education for your kids and if you try to organize a union you may lose your job.

A.O.: The university administration is definitely against unions.

S.U. Worker: Definitely. But workers need it.

A.O.: Why?

S.U. Worker: For protection. Individuals can’t protect their jobs and their rights by themselves. Remember, when an employee is cut the work that employee was doing must be done by those who are left. They need it [a union] to protect themselves from this.

A.O.: I know that the Writing Program has created what amounts to a kind of immigrant labor force which is paid a small fraction of what the administration would have to pay regular faculty to do the same job.

S.U. Worker: Yeah. And they don’t have to pay them benefits: health insurance, retirement, [childcare]. Basically, it comes down to cutting people who’ve been here a while and who make too much and then hiring new people at the bottom of the pay scale.

A.O.: While students often direct their frustrations at front line workers — secretaries working in the bursar’s office or people working in the health center — these people are already overworked, under tremendous stress as they’re being squeezed from the top, asked to do more by their superiors with less from the administration. Students are less likely to direct their frustrations at the administrators who’ve eliminated jobs, making it more difficult for those who remain to do their jobs, and more likely to direct their frustrations at workers who are overworked, underpaid, and worried about the next round of cuts.

S.U. Worker: You know that there have always been complaints about the bursar’s office. Too slow, not very friendly.

A second worker walked in at this moment and commented: That’s because they don’t have time to be nice.

S.U. Worker: Yeah. And it’s tough to raise complaints to your bosses.

A.O.: I think everyone learns that, if you want to raise some questions or concerns about working conditions you must do so in a way that doesn’t upset your boss or you just keep your mouth shut, knowing they can fire you whenever they please.

S.U. Worker: I know students hate going to the health center because there’s not enough staff and they have to wait for hours. Everyone is running around, trying to do what they can with fewer people.

A.O.: This is something we haven’t really talked about as much: the racial division of labor on campus; there are a lot more blacks doing janitorial and food service work than whites. What’s happening?

S.U. Worker: You don’t see that many blacks. There’s Howard Johnson [in Math Education] and a few others around campus. There used to be a woman in the front office, a secretary. She referred to herself as the “token black.”

A.O.: You’re talking about blacks who occupy positions of relative authority.

S.U. Worker: Yes.

A.O.: I don’t know the actual breakdown but I know that whenever I’m in the library, H.B.C., H.L. the Schine, etc., that the janitorial staff is largely African-Americans and Hispanics. S.U. is, it seems to me, becoming more elitist, with the tuition increases, and I believe it’s safe to say, more white as a result. At the same time you’ve got this racial division of labor in which African-Americans and Hispanics are doing the bulk of the clean-up and food service work. I guess that’s diversity!

I’ve spoken with a number of secretaries and other service workers about the cutbacks and layoffs and they are, as you might imagine, keeping their fingers crossed that they won’t be next. They’re holding their breath. They have no way of knowing and they certainly weren’t invited to participate in discussions and debates about who should be cut and what should be cut. I’m sure that the jobs of the high paid administrators who make these decisions are not on the chopping block.

S.U. Worker: They’re [front line people] going down this month. They let them know in February whether they’ll be gone and then they get to work until June, knowing they’ve already been cut.

A.O.: That’s tough.

S.U. Worker: So the administration is going to dump some more people. It’s funny because Ed Golden stresses making the students feel at home, that we [workers] are here for the kids. Then they turn around and kick ‘em [the workers] in the butt.

A.O.: So they’re asking — telling — you to provide great service on the one hand and taking away the resources and the people to provide this service on the other?

S.U. Worker: You got it.

A.O.: You’ve shed a lot of light on what restructuring means for students and workers here at Syracuse University. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us.

Note from the Editors: If you have similar or related stories to tell please send them to The Alternative Orange at 126T Schine.

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