My name is
Glenn Khalar. I am the custodian in the JDH Library. I am also a veteran.
We on this
campus have a program for Veterans to help them find new jobs and retrain them.
As a veteran myself, hired on this campus partially because I'm a veteran, I am
saddened to think that now we may be outsourced instead of looking out for our
interests as we claim to do on this campus. I am not the only veteran on this
campus that would be affected by outsourcing. This is a great concern of mine,
as well as other concerns that I have.
I was
raised here, brought up a family here, lived in the country my whole life and
in this community. I was taught common sense, caring, looking out for others,
being honest and team work. Now, I come to the UWS campus to find out that
people of authority can stretch the truth. There is no real team work here and
I see a lot of greed from people that have plenty to give. I don't see
community support, looking out for the student's best interest as well as the
University's interest.
These are a
few of my examples of why you should not outsource jobs:
I have been
on this campus now for 16 years. I've put out three fires. I stopped a bike
theft from happening with the help of Campus Safety. I've found numerous floods
on my watch. I've found broken out windows and doors. I know when the air
handlers are not working in a building. I know when something is out of the
ordinary that needs attention from Facilities Management. Not to speak of the
numerous students that I've personally shoveled out when they are stuck in the
parking lots and even on the road as I'm leaving for home. I've found numerous
lost and found items that are sometimes very valuable and have turned these
items in, always. These are some of the things you will loose when I am
outsourced.
Just this
year, I got a new used car. During the last snow storm, coming to work to
shovel and clear snow for the campus, I damaged the whole front end of my car
which still is not fixed because I can't afford to fix it. I have stayed in
town so I am here to shovel and clear snow for the campus. Again, these are the
things that you will not receive from outsourced people. I've taken pride in my
job and my work. I show kindness from my heart to those I work with and to
students and their parents. I have assisted numerous students and parents when
they have needed direction on campus. I've even showed a professor how to load
a stapler. Surprising, that I make $12.00 an hour and others are making way too
much money.
We, as
custodians and grounds employees, are team players as we've gotten together to
set up numerous functions for the campus or for the public. I've come in
numerous times on my time off to clean up vomit, human waste and chewing
tobacco. Not to mention, thousands of cigarette butts and trash outside of
buildings. These things may not be done if we are outsourced. The big set ups
for functions may not be done also. I, as well as other custodians, always help
staff, students and administration/management when they needed it on a day to
day basis. Whether it is opening a door, helping to carry items in and out of
buildings or anything asked of us.
I was
taught that hard work would get you somewhere in life, when in reality, it has
proven to get me taken advantage of on job duties and now to tell me that all
of my hard work doesn't mean anything here.
This is
going to hurt the community, something severe, and hurt the campus and affect
all students coming to this campus in the future. If you are really concerned
about your campus, your students and your community then you would not even be
thinking of outsourcing us. Considering there are not a lot of decent jobs in
this area, you are now asking 28 employees to go even further backwards,
financially, in life and maybe even losing their homes. If others on this
campus were more caring and giving to the employees that needed it, it would
make the campus community a much better place for all and our students for this
area of Superior
I am not
trying to offend anyone. If this hurts you in any way, shape or form, then the
truth hurts. I want to see the campus thrive with more students and put us on
the map as a caring and concerning campus for not only the students and their
family members but for the employees and the community as well.
Please
don't outsource our jobs. Pay us a fair salary to live on and raise our
families and keep our homes. As we all love this little town we call Superior , Wisconsin
Being
ex-military, I've seen a lot of good leaders. What makes a good leader:
Leadership
Equals Leading By Example
1.
Chancellor - asking the custodians and grounds to sacrifice our pay for less is
wrong for administration who have the most to give financially by taking a pay
cut or never accepting another raise with the amount of money you make in a
year. The Chancellor could easily give up all of the free perks that come with
the job and/or pay out of your own pocket these expenses which are housing,
travel, vehicle, food and even parking permit. When having to travel out of
town, down state, to so called important meetings we now have a thing called
Skype that could save a lot of money by keeping you here on campus where you
are needed the most and not out of town costing us money.
2.
Administration - Cutting all made up supervisor and administration positions
that were not needed in the first place could save quite a few jobs from that
alone.
3. If you
cannot take a pay cut or stop accepting raises, then you could truly make
donations into a trust fund for the employees of the campus. Depending on your
salary, it could be anywhere from $5,000 - $100,000.
4. You may
not be able to control this but you can influence the way the money is
allocated as this is a broken system and has been from day one. Just doing this
alone would save everyone's job and still give them a decent raise at the end
of the year. Most important of all, we wouldn't be wasting tax payers' dollars
foolishly.
I ask, as a little person, that maybe we start a new trend showing the community, as well as the world (
What a
world this would be if everyone pitched in. So, let's put Superior , Wisconsin
This is
truly USA
We are the
eyes and ears of the campus. You'll never get better security and job
performance on day to day operations, public functions and knowledge of the job
as you will from the custodians and grounds on this campus if we are
outsourced. We do take pride in the campus and our buildings and look out for
everyone, staff, students and community members. We've all been given special
training with our jobs and you'd be losing these things as well.
As an
ex-military man, don't throw all of the people overboard that make this ship
float. Let's be people friendly and caring and caring for those who do so much
for so little.
Sincerely,
Glenn
Khalar
Librarian
Custodian
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