President Jacobs Letter in Support of Senate Bill 5...
Linda Marie Rouillard, UT-AAUP Executive Board
and
Donald K. Wedding, UT-AAUP Executive Board
Below is a copy of a February 16, 2011 letter by Lloyd Jacobs to Kevin Bacon, Chair of the Ohio Senate Insurance, Commerce, and Labor Committee.
THE UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
February 16, 2011
Honorable Kevin Bacon
Chairman, Senate Insurance, Commerce & Labor Committee
Ohio Senate
Statehouse
Columbus, Ohio 43215
Dear Chairman Bacon:
Thanks for accepting this letter in lieu of my appearance in person to testify. The purpose of this letter is to state my support for the principles embedded in Senate Bill 5. In order to contextualize this support, it is important to note that I believe unions have done much good in the world and in the United States of America. I am not an "anti-union" person. Still, however, I believe that after these many years, a careful look and some significant revision of the statute governing collective bargaining for governmental employees is appropriate.
The University of Toledo currently contracts with five unions. The membership of these five unions constitutes approximately 47% of our total payroll which is in the range of $162 million. Overall we have an outstanding union workforce and excellent relationships with them.
Still opportunities exist for more effective and efficient operations, which would be facilitated by Senate Bill 5. Currently we do not have the ability to assign employees who do the same work at any of our locations. We have, as a matter of fact, different unions on different campuses. Being campus specific results in unnecessary duplication of personnel. It is estimated that we could reduce our labor costs by approximately $2.6 million where this not the case.
We believe that 95% of our union workforce are highly effective, diligent, and committed. However, as with any workforce, some are not. Due to the cumbersome progressive discipline process required under our contracts and the cost in management time to deal with ineffective worker, we believe that we are spending approximately $8 million in labor costs beyond what could be optimal in a situation that could exist after the passage of
Senate Bill 5.
Currently, work rules contribute to inefficiencies. There are limits on which workers can do what work and this result in inefficient operations. We estimate that we can save approximately $1 million in labor costs if we had increase flexibility to assign employees.
Many of our faculty members are members of the American Association of University Professors. Our ability to assign faculty to classroom work, research, or service might be improved under a scenario which includes the passing of Senate Bill 5. Here again our unionized faculty are among our most important assets. We greatly value their intellect, however, we believe that as much as $10 million in potential savings could result from modification of statute law as reflected in Senate Bill 5.
Thank you for accepting this input. I want to stress again that unions have accomplished much good in our society, but that a careful re-visitation of the current rules is entirely appropriate.
Sincerely,
Lloyd A. Jacobs, M.D.
President
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