For the second time in as many years, the University is engaged in a tense labor dispute with a segment of employees who are fundamental to the school's functioning. Last October, Brown Dining Services workers threatened to strike in response to a proposed increase in workers' contributions to health care premiums. And as The Herald reported last week, the University's negotiations with the library workers' union are ongoing. Issues pertaining to health insurance coverage and costs remain unresolved. Our inclination is to support the library workers, and we are again especially concerned by the University's lack of transparency when labor disputes arise.
As a Herald story noted last week, the University does not generally comment on details of contract negotiations with employees. There are surely good reasons for this policy, but there's also a good reason it should be eased slightly for the time being. Despite the lingering effects of a brutal economic recession and a state unemployment rate above 11 percent, multi-million dollar construction projects seem to be springing up all over campus. As a result, many students and other community members may experience cognitive dissonance when they hear that the University is taking a hard line in talks with Dining Services or library workers.
We've noted in previous editorials that donations to the University are often earmarked for specific purposes, so money for construction projects would be difficult to redirect. But each time these disputes happen, students' view of the administration and Brown's reputation in the city and state take a major hit. Last year, students supporting the Dining Services workers carried around a giant puppet of a school administrator holding dollar bills in each hand. The University must do a better job of articulating why it is seeking certain contract changes and roughly how much it expects to save.
Without a little more explanation and clarification, we can't help but be persuaded by the back-of-the-envelope calculations that appeared in an opinions column in The Herald last week. The author, Chris Norris-LeBlanc '13, calculated that while library workers are being asked to pay at the very least an additional 2.67 percent of their yearly income for health insurance, the estimated cost savings would amount to only .01 percent of the University's yearly operating budget. If Norris-LeBlanc's figures are even roughly correct, we agree that the library workers are being unnecessarily squeezed.
The administration has largely done a good job of navigating an extremely difficult economy, and the construction projects do create jobs and stimulate economic activity in Rhode Island. But when negotiations between Brown and its employees become tense, the sixth largest employer in the state needs to be a little more forthright and proactive about answering observers' reasonable questions.
Editorials are written by The Herald's editorial page board. Send comments to editorials@browndailyherald.com.
