SEIU Local 51 members at Sage Colleges fighting for a fair contract
Susan Scrimshaw, President, Sage Colleges
For three years workers at Russell Sage College (Troy) and Sage College (Albany) have worked without a new contract. Some of the lowest paid workers on campus, the housekeepers, make just north of minimum wage, while none of the service workers at the Sage Colleges have received a significant pay increase for seven years.
At the bargaining table, the Sage administration has refused to respect the hard work and valuable contributions made by their employees. Instead, Sage leadership has hired the anti-union law firm Bond, Schoeneck, and King rather than investing in their workers. Sage refuses to budge on reasonable, cost-less demands and refuses to remove language in the contract that restricts employee speech. These positions fly in the face of the mission and the history of the colleges and their founder, Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage.
Add your name and tell President Susan Scrimshaw to negotiate a fair contract now!
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To:
Susan Scrimshaw, President, Sage Colleges
From:
[Your Name]
It has recently come to my attention that, instead of bargaining in good faith with your SEIU represented union employees; you have chosen to squander your institution's money by hiring the anti-union law firm Bond, Schoeneck, and King. This is truly shameful and disappointing and runs contradictory to not only the Sage Colleges' mission and history, but to the important standard setting role institutions such as yours play in our communities.
As a resident of the Capital District I urge you to negotiate a fair contract with your employees, through a mutual respectful process that is free from coercion, and illustrates the value you place on the important work carried out by workers at the Sage Colleges on a day-by-day basis. Use yourself as a benchmark by which we can teach our next generation of students about the tenants of negotiating to find common ground through differences, and working well with others to achieve common goals.