Dionte Berry
Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
After making their presence known at the beginning of the semester with petitions concerning COVID-19 and communications, the Murray Chapter of the United Campus workers of Kentucky have voted on and approved a new platform.
The platform sets the Union’s objectives, which will focus on the needs of campus workers. The platform outlines three steps: living wages and affordable healthcare for all campus workers, support for parents and caregivers on campus and respect and safety for all campus workers.
Associate Art History Professor and Union Chapter member Antje Gamble said the work toward approving a platform started last semester.
“We have been working on the platform, basically, since September. We were hoping to have the platform set before we officially launched, but we decided to launch before the platform was totally settled,” Gamble said. “That also allowed us to get more feedback. The initial group of members was fairly homogenous. It was mostly faculty, and this is not a faculty union.”
The extra time allowed for more staff and student workers to become well-needed voices as part of the Murray Chapter. Gamble said she further appreciates the added voices because out of all campus workers, faculty members are the least at risk in terms of having their employment threatened by poor conditions or a lack of flexibility.
On the Murray Chapter’s social media, they have posts targeted at student workers and their needs. Gamble said this is because they are the most vulnerable and lowest paid on campus.
“We want to make sure the most marginalized voices are being heard…and I’m really happy with the platform that we put out,” Gamble said.
Each of the three items have demands, according to the platform. The demands are aimed at the administration.
The first item, living wages and affordable healthcare for all campus workers, demands a Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase along with a $15 minimum wage for all campus workers within the next five years.
The first demand also addresses the wage discrepancies between related positions.
“Murray State must set up a pay scale that is relational between workers and their direct supervisors that does not exceed twice the salary of the lowest-paid employee,” according to the platform. “When supervisor/manager’s pay is disproportionately higher than worker pay, there creates further imbalances within the workplace that add to issues of inequity and even exploitation.”
Concerning healthcare, the platform demands for the increase of health benefits for all regular full-time, part-time and student workers.
For the second item, support for parents and caregivers, the Murray Chapter’s platform says that the lack of support for caregivers could interfere with employee retention.
In order to garner more support for caregivers the platform recommends following a proposal made by the Gender Equity Caucus (GEC).
The proposal argued for more flexibility concerning course delivery, a change in the way course evaluations are used and how research and creative activity are assessed.
Required COVID-19 vaccination for all those on campus is also among the Chapter’s demands. It is included as an item serving to ensure that campus workers can protect family members that are unable to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
The third item, respect and safety for all campus workers, addresses ending workplace harassment, bullying and discrimination.
“This affects every job class on campus (Faculty, Staff, Graduate Student Workers, and Undergraduate Student Workers),” according to the platform. “The reporting of harmful behavior is met with pandering, gaslighting, and inaction by managers through upper-administration.”
Overall, the item demands for the protection of campus workers, and to have working avenues of reporting if offenses are made.
“We have members, who have reported stalking, harassment and sexual assault, of varying degrees, that is basically even if officially reported, very little consequences happen,” Gamble said. “They don’t feel safe even if all the legal consequences have taken place, that is often the case.”
In the face of these issues, the platform calls for an ombudsman, which would be a neutral party when it comes to workplace issues to investigate the issues and work toward what is best for both parties.
Murray Chapter member and Associate Professor of Higher Education Brain Bourke said he believes there needs to be a more structured approach when it comes to navigating workplace issues.
“Currently in the way our system as an institution is set up, if a worker has a complaint, and they feel that it’s not been taken seriously and not been addressed adequately, their only recourse if they want to continue to pursue that is to find an attorney,” Bourke said. “That’s a drastic step.”
Bourke said the platform announcement came at a good time after campus surveys have reflected the dissatisfaction many campus workers already feel.
“Forty-two percent of staff members have considered leaving the University,” Bourke said. “That’s pretty big.”
The Murray Chapter has yet to receive a formal response from administration concerning their petitions earlier in the Spring 2022 semester.
Although there has not been formal upfront communication between the two bodies, Bourke said he does see improvements based on the requests made in the prior petitions.
“I think that we’ve seen a little bit of improvement in communication that can be seen with the closures that we’ve had recently for anticipated severe weather,” Bourke said.
Unlike the previous petitions the platform is serving as a tool to show people what the Murray Chapter is about and why there is a Union at Murray State.
