Augsburg College has told union workers in its maintenance, groundskeeping and custodial departments that, for cost-saving reasons, it is likely to outsource their work. Employees fear outsourcing threatens their wages, benefits and even jobs.

'I can't see how they'd save any money except by taking it out of [workers'] hides,' said Bruce Yernberg, business representative for Operating Engineers Local 70, which represents the three dozen workers. 'We're trying to stop this, period.'

Clergy activists also are trying to block the move, questioning how outsourcing is consistent with the college's Lutheran mission.

Workers say Augsburg told them it hopes to have a decision made and transition completed before classes resume after Labor Day. 'They're doing it now because the students and faculty aren't here,' one worker said.

At press deadline, Augsburg had not announced a final decision.

Officials refuse to meet
In private meetings, Augsburg officials told the workers the college is negotiating with Sodexho-Marriott Services to take over responsibility for their departments. Augsburg president William Frame and other administration officials have refused to meet with union representatives, and have refused to allow union representatives at campus meetings with employees.

Lutheran pastors Steve Benson, Wayne Stumme and Doug Mork - who are active in the Twin Cities Religion and Labor Network - also have been unable to set up a meeting with Frame. They sent a letter 'expressing concern about how outsourcing would affect the workers and the union, and expressing our concern as part of the official constituency community of the college,' said Benson, of Bethany Lutheran Church on Franklin Ave. in Minneapolis.

Frame's written response, he said, 'was cordial, but he's clearly not interested in our input or enthused about having us involved in the discussion.'

Empty promise?
Workers say Augsburg has assured them they will retain current wages and benefits. However, some employees say that would be impossible, because benefits such as tuition reimbursement at Augsburg or other colleges of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are available only to university employees, which outsourced workers no longer would be.

Yernberg says Local 70 has represented the workers for 16 years, and the current labor contract runs through 2003. Hourly wages actually are less than at comparatively sized campuses, he said, which many workers accept as a tradeoff for working in a church-based community.

NLRB forces settlement
Sodexho's North American operations employ 111,000 people. Promotional materials say, 'We offer a full range of outsourcing solutions to the corporate, healthcare, and education markets, including food services, housekeeping, groundskeeping, plant operations and maintenance, and integrated facilities management.'

Sodexho, which already manages Augsburg's food services operations, has a spotty history of labor relations. Yernberg said Local 70 has a joint contract with Sodexho at Carleton College in Northfield. Of the local's 270 contracts in the state, he said, 'they are the only employer where we have a standing grievance meeting. We meet monthly because they routinely violate the contract.'

Last year, the National Labor Relations Board negotiated a settlement with Sodexho forcing the company to eliminate illegal work rules that prohibited employees from talking to outsiders about working conditions or food safety, or talking to each other at the work site before or after their shifts.

According to the Hotel and Restaurant Employees International Union, the settlement also required Sodexho to post federal notices at more than 5,000 U.S. locations informing employees that they have the right to join unions and are permitted to talk about their working conditions among themselves and with others.

This past February, the NLRB compelled Sodexho to once again post the notices at certain locations for 60 additional days, HERE said.

This article was written for the Aug. 29, 2001, issue of The Union Advocate newspaper. Used by permission. The Union Advocate is the official publication of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@mtn.org