We wanted to let everyone know about this exciting victory.

When UCW-CWA’s members outlined our goals for the 2008 Campaign for UT’s Working Families we placed a special emphasis on winning justice for UT’s Agricultural workers. Our main demand was for overtime pay and an end to the discreditable practice of forcing nearly 100 hourly employees to work a minimum 45 hour work week with no premium over-time pay.

We won the overtime issue in early January, making a huge improvement in the lives of these workers. Since then we have continued our work to improve conditions at various farms, including the UT Dairy Farm.

In late February UCW-CWA heard of plans to close the Dairy and conduct a Reduction in Force (RIF) on the affected employees. We submitted an open records request to better understand the plans for the closure and advocated for transfers for the Dairy Farm’s employees if a RIF was to take place. In addition to contacting the union with the information we requested, earlier this week UT Institute of Agriculture (UTIA) released a press release that answered point by point the questions we posed in our request.

UCW-CWA is very pleased that under the leadership of Vice President DiPietro, UTIA has made sure that no current regular employees will be laid off; that all affected workers will receive transfers in the Knoxville area to jobs within the Experiment Station system; and that none of the affected workers will see a reduction in pay. Additionally the closure has been planned within a time frame that will not disrupt the work schedules of student interns and graduate employees.

This shows the power positive change and a vision of hope can have on how decisions are made here at UT. Changes are possible, and even tough decisions can be made in ways that do not harm UT’s working families. As our movement for justice continues, good news always serves as a welcome “pick-me-up.”

UT’s press release can be found here: http://www.agriculture.utk.edu/news/releases/2008/0803-DairyRelocation.htm