A RESOLUTION

CONCERNING THE WELFARE OF THE UNIVERSITY STAFF

Unanimously approved by the GSA on September 1, 2000

PREAMBLE:

The University of Texas at Austin is one of the largest employers in the city of Austin.  As Austin and the University grow in population size, the cost of living has increased dramatically. The ongoing differences between the University staff and administration are symptomatic of the financial problems that affect the entire University of Texas at Austin community. In 1997 an independent report confirmed that salaries of UT staff members were significantly below market value.  Despite the administration's attempt to rectify this situation with pay raises staggered over time, many staff members confirm that they continue to face economic hardships. Staff members are a strategic and vital interest of a functioning university.  Continued erosion of their basic standard of living and work place rights mean that the University is quickly losing its place among the nation's leading public universities.  This problem impinges upon the lives and futures of all members of the UT community. It is a situation that highlights other problems for staff members on campus. These include, but are not limited to, the absence of an official grievance process and, importantly, a recent cut in health and dental benefits.  The letter of the UT custodians is another example of the mounting adverse human cost of working for and receiving an education at the University of Texas at Austin.

WE RESOLVE THAT:

• the University must not ask custodial workers to use toxic chemicals that, according to medical doctors and those chemicals' manufacturers, have any effects detrimental to peoples health.

• the administration must explain why the number of custodial workers has been reduced and their cleaning tasks increased with no commensurate pay compensation.

• the University administration and the Board of Regents must provide Spanish-language editions of the Handbook of Operating Procedures and UT Board of Regents' Rules and Regulations, and all other relevant workplace information and training.

We ask that the administration carry out these specific, limited resolutions to uphold the University's stated "core purpose: to transform lives for the benefit of society" and to demonstrate its commitment to one of its stated core values: that of "responsibility: to serve as a catalyst for positive change in Texas and beyond."