Over the summer Brown laid off nine workers and contracted with RICOH, a Japanese corporation, for its mail room services. Brown said the move would save money and increase efficiency, but according to the protesters:
“Important packages have been lost, students have not received medication in a timely fashion, departmental mail has been lost, and lines for picking up packages can be extremely long.”
Perhaps more important than lost and late mail is the impact such moves have on workers and our community.
It is extremely difficult to find a good job that pays decent money and provides anything in the way of benefits. Now, thanks to outsourcing, its even more difficult. Outsourcing allows a company to lay off a bunch of employees and pay a lump sum to an outside vender who supplies low paid workers, usually temps who work by the hour and receive no benefits. This saves the company money and transforms good jobs that people can use to raise families and improve their lives into low wage poverty traps.
The rally was called because an analyst from RICOH was coming in to “assess the mail room drivers, positions that previously were not outsourced to RICOH.” Though Brown administrators Beppie Huidekoper and Beth Gentry claim there are no plans to outsource these jobs, protesters are skeptical. The same RICOH analyst came to Brown last year to assess the mail room, and now those jobs are gone.
The protesters are asking “that President [Christina] Paxson, Beppie Huidekoper, and Beth Gentry publicly commit not to outsource these jobs to RICOH, maintaining them as Brown employees. We ask that they disinvite the RICOH analyst.”
As workers, students and the community suffers, Brown pockets the profits. If Brown University can’t offer decent, well paying jobs to our community, why are they exempt from paying taxes?
OUR VOICE IN WASHINGTON
Rhode Islanders sent Sheldon to the Senate to fight for us and against the big special interests and thats just what he has done. We know that we can count on Sheldon to support our priorities creating jobs, protecting families, and ending special deals for billionaires and big corporations. Sheldon has led the fight against moves to severely cut Social Security, Medicare benefits, and Pell Grants because he knows how much we in Rhode Island count on these programs. And he has opposed giving more tax breaks to billionaires and multinational corporations while middle class families continue to suffer.
SHELDONS PLAN
Putting Rhode Islanders Back to Work. Sheldon has fought hard for legislation to create jobs, support small businesses, and revitalize our manufacturing sector.
Protecting Medicare and Social Security for Rhode Island Seniors. Sheldon will always be committed to preserving Social Security and Medicare benefits, and will continue fighting to reduce the cost of prescription drugs for seniors.
Getting a Straight Deal for Middle Class Families. Sheldon has heard from so many Rhode Islanders who are frustrated with the special deals enjoyed by big corporations and billionaires. He shares that frustration and is working to restore the straight deal that middle class Americans expect and deserve ending tax giveaways to Big Oil, combating unfair credit card interest rates, making sure millionaires and billionaires pay their fair share in taxes, and putting a stop to unlimited and anonymous spending by big corporations in our elections.
Supporting Education. Providing our children with a good education is the most important thing we can do to give them the opportunity to get the best jobs in the future.
Protecting our Environment and Coastal Economy. In Rhode Island, the strength of our economy is strongly tied to the health of our environment. Sheldon recognizes this, and is leading several bipartisan efforts to better protect our oceans and coasts and the jobs they support. Hes working with Senator Snowe (R-ME) to establish a National Endowment for the Oceans, collaborating with Senator Vitter (R-LA) to re-authorize the National Estuary Program, and is co-chairing the Senate Oceans Caucus with Senator Murkowski (R-AK). Sheldon will continue fighting to advance these priorities in 2012.
Stay in Touch: whitehouse.senate.gov, facebook.com/SenatorWhitehouse, twitter.com/SenWhitehouse
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