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Published on: 12/19/2006
Last Visited: 10/3/2009
"It has been a long battle," said Edward S. Collins, union president and campus electrician.
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Union president and campus electrician Edward S. Collins said he appreciates the community support and hopes the members will go for the deal.
"It was a lot of hard work and it paid off in the end," he said.
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CSEA Clarkson University Local 752 President Ed Collins, a campus electrician, said that the workers received a huge outpouring of support from visitors to their web site.
"Our efforts to bring our fight to the public were very successful, and we heard back from a lot of people who supported our struggle.
Obviously we turned the heat up enough to get the University to move off of their previous unfair offer," Collins said.
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I question President Collins about economic development in the North Country.
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Electrician and union President Edward S. Collins said this impasse has gone on far too long and while he said a strike is possible someday, members are not ready for it yet.
He also said the union will fight for a higher wage increase as long as necessary.
"We're not giving up," he said.
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"We're not interested in striking, and we're not the ones who have been doing all the talking about it," said Local 752 President Ed Collins.
"What we're interested in is fair bargaining, where the University comes to the table with a wage offer that treats our members with respect and allows them to keep up with the cost of living, instead of trying to pit us against each other and break us apart.
"Our campus workers are going to stand firm and united, and continue to demand fair bargaining, and we're not going to let ourselves get pushed into actions that would hurt our University community.
That's not what we're about," he added.
Collins said the workers will continue to reach out to the public, as well as students, parents, alumni, faculty, trustees and politicians to build support for their struggle.
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"We smell a rat in these negotiations, and it's definitely our University Administration," said Ed Collins, Local 752 president.
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Clarkson University Local President Ed Collins, a mechanic electrician, said the workers want to remind the students they need support in their struggle.
"We're in it for the long haul, as long as it takes to get a fair contract from this administration," he said.
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CSEA President Ed Collins said the union will talk about the possibility of a strike and in the meantime they've been going through the process to initiate a strike such as getting permission from the president's office.
'We're going to have a general membership meeting on the (October) 25th and that will be a topic of conversation," he said.
In the interim, Collins said there is going to be further action throughout the community and more public displays of their distaste of a 1.5 percent pay increase.
"It's pathetic as far as I'm concerned," Collins said of the pay increase proposal.
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But Collins argued the 1.5 percent wage increase isn't fair when considering their people make less than any other school and it takes longer than any other area university to get to the top of the salary scale.
He explained to get to the top at SUNY Potsdam or SUNY Canton it takes seven years, at St. Lawrence University it takes eight years but at Clarkson it can take 30 years to reach the top.
He said staff like custodians who start at $8.17 would have to stay for the 30 years or more just to reach $12.56 an hour.
To rectify that, Collins said he would like 10 cents added on to the pay scale steps and make the top attainable within 10 years.
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Collins said when he started working at the university in 1989, Clarkson was the highest paying university in the area.
"They've gone from the highest paying to the lowest paying 30 plus percent," he said.
He noted several people have left in the past year taking jobs elsewhere which offer better pay.
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Electrician and union member Edward S. Collins said doing so would hurt the students but, while nobody really wants a strike, it may be the only way to get Clarkson's attention.
"It would show them we're a valuable part of this university," he said.
"Without us this place wouldn't operate."
The union and college met Sept. 25 with a federal mediator, but nothing was accomplished, Mr. Collins said.
The university has offered the CSEA employees $33,000 to split among themselves for a raise, which works out to $312 extra per person per year, or a raise of approximately 15 cents an hour.
The union's counterproposal was a raise of $700 per employee per year, or about 33 cents an hour.
Clarkson has said that since all employees received the 1.5 percent wage hike this year, giving one group more than another is unfair.
But Mr. Collins said the way Clarkson treats its service workers is unfair anyway, inasmuch as the average maintenance salary is $23,400 a year.
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The near 90 union members are expected to meet within the next few days when their president, Ed Collins, returns from Now York City to vote on whether or not to drop their mops and pick up picket signs
Collins is in the city with a "shame shame on Clarkson" sign trying to get the sign aired on Good Morning America today and tomorrow morning.
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According to Local 752 President Ed Collins, a mechanic electrician at the University, the workers want to remind the students that they need support in their struggle.
"We're in it for the long haul, as long as it takes to get a fair contract from this administration," Collins said.
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Ed Collins, the president of CSEA Local 752 and a Mechanic Electrician at Clarkson, spoke to United States Senator Hillary Clinton on Friday, September 1, about the union's struggle for a higher wage increase.
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In an interview with Joe Paul, a Mechanic Carpenter at Clarkson, and Ed Collins, the two stated that healthcare should not be tied to their wage packages and that the "administration doesn't want to step up to the plate" to give them their desired contract.
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Ed Collins and Joe Paul say that since that time, many workers either lost their jobs, were forced into early retirement, or were ordered to take midnight shifts.
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In their interview with The Integrator, Ed Collins and Joe Paul also expressed concern that Clarkson might be attempting to minimize press coverage of the issue.
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Paul and Collins commented that there is a strong probability they will be placing ads on TV and in the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and USA Today regarding the offered contract.
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Ed Collins declared, "We're not going to settle for 1.5 percent."
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