'Chop from the top' at U of A, say protesters from workers union

More than 150 people gathered outside of the University of Arizona’s Administration building to protest against UA Interim CFO John Arnold’s announcement of impending layoffs.

Monday’s protest, organized by the United Campus Workers of Arizona union, featured staff, faculty and student speakers, with “chop from the top” chants and a short cameo from Arnold himself, who was briefly caught in the verbal crossfire while walking into the building with his lunch.

“How long are we going to allow people making $30,000 per paycheck to determine who keeps a job and who doesn’t?” Spencer Gantt, a staff representative for the union, asked the crowd.

Gantt added that senior administration doesn’t “look at us like human beings, they look at us like profit cogs.”

The union’s protest, in front of the building where Arnold has stationed his office, was in direct response to the expected layoffs, as well as the broader financial action plan introduced last week to deal with a $177 million UA deficit. The plan asks UA units to present plans for potential 5%, 10% and 15% budget cuts. The Arizona Board of Regents will pay for consulting groups to reorganize central administration, athletics and the online UA Global Campus project.

“They are in self-preservation mode,” Gantt told the rowdy crowd. “They will cut any project or worker to keep themselves afloat.”

Gantt used his speech to rally attendees to join the union, which he said is “growing at a rapid speed.”

“It is time to join this workers’ union,” he said. “The national labor rights board has never been more powerful.”

Maria Sohn Hassman, a union leader, told the Arizona Daily Star in an interview after the rally that it is “critical” that students, staff and faculty are working together as “a community.”

“We’re going to make noise,” she said. “We’re going to make sure that we’re talking to the community and letting them know what’s going on.”

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All the speakers were a part of the union, and all contended the financial crisis was caused by mismanagement by UA President Robert C. Robbins and ABOR.

“We are all fighting against the UA administration and the Arizona Board of Regents as they continue to threaten our livelihoods with this financial crisis that they have caused,” said Marcos Esparza, a graduate student in the College of Optical Science.

Suddenly, the crowd began booing and shouting with a newfound force. It was because Arnold was walking past the protest and into his office building. Looking up at the jeering protesters, Arnold gave a small smile and wave.

“We refuse to pay for the mistakes of the system that has refused to manage our university’s financials responsibly,” Alyssa Sanchez, the undergraduate student president, told the crowd.

Faculty Senate Chair Leila Hudson also spoke at the event. Other outspoken faculty senators, including Ted Downing, a research professor, and Johann Rafelski, a physics professor, attended.

Hudson told the crowd that some faculty members have named the financial crisis a “reverse Robinhood, in which the work and resources, the revenue from the working people and the working units are redirected away from the reinvestment in our teaching and mission” and “redirected to the wealthiest among us.”

She added that the “calls for greater efficiency and greater productivity” are unwelcome given “we’ve been training at high altitude for as long as I can remember.”

“All of this should not and never translate into you losing your jobs and livelihoods,” she said. “Because you are the ones who make the University of Arizona work.”