That plan would outsource facilities jobs like maintenance, custodial and cafeteria workers to a private company under a 30-year contract. Others in the IT, marketing and communications departments would be re-assigned to work under Beyond Blue LLC, UK’s nonprofit holding company.
Members of the United Campus Workers union, alongside Lexington union and city leaders, spoke against the plan at a union rally Saturday.
The university says current workers wouldn’t lose their current pay or benefits as part of the plan. UK spokesperson Jay Blanton says it’s a way to boost efficiency.
“These are efforts about how, in a time when budgets are getting tighter, when we are being expected to do and be more for the state that we serve, it's appropriate to look at the services we provide and how we provide them, and try to do that in the best way possible,” Blanton said.
But members of United Campus Workers, which operates independently of the University of Kentucky, say UK’s existing pay and benefits structure wouldn’t extend to new employees, or those who change jobs. Others argued the quality of the work itself would worsen.
“We're going to be asking fewer workers to do more work, to be more experts on more departments, which is not possible,” said union member Katie Goldey. “What someone needs in health science is a lot different than what someone needs in education.”
Others, like UCW member and communications worker Robby Hardesty, said he hasn’t been told exactly how his department will be impacted.
“We've been left in the dark as to what these changes will look like. We've been told that we will have new bosses. We have not been told who they are. We've been told that the nature of our work will change. We have not been told how,” Hardesty said.
An online petition asking the school to reverse course has more than 400 signatures.
